Memorandum submitted by Children's Rights
Alliance for England (CRAE)
ABOUT CRAE
1. The Children's Rights Alliance for England
(CRAE) seeks the full implementation of the United Nations Convention
on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in England. Our vision is of
a society where the human rights of all children are recognised
and realised.
INTRODUCTION
2. This submission focuses on the bills
identified by the Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) for legislative
scrutiny in the 2009-10 parliamentary session. We highlight
significant children's rights issues raised in each of the bills
and consider opportunities to strengthen children's human rights
protection.
CHILD POVERTY
BILL
Ending child poverty by 2020
3. CRAE is a member of the End Child Poverty
campaign. We recognise that the Government's commitment to eradicating
child poverty by 2020 should move the UK further towards
compliance with its obligations under Article 27 of the UNCRC.
However, we are concerned that the Child Poverty Bill defines
successful eradication as a relative poverty rate of below 10%.
We urge the Government to consider the recommendations of the
UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (UN Committee) to provide
disaggregated budgetary analysis to identify the amount of expenditure
allocated to children and to consider whether this serves to effectively
implement policies and legislation affecting them.
CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM
AND GOVERNANCE
BILL
Parliamentary scrutiny of treaties before ratification
4. CRAE welcomes increased parliamentary
scrutiny of the UK's commitments to international human rights
legislation as a measure to strengthen both the democratic process
and parliamentary oversight of the implementation of
ratified treaties. Care must be taken to ensure that this process
serves to strengthen human rights protection in the UK, and does
not, through a lack of knowledge and understanding of human rights,
serve to undermine it. It is important that parliamentarians (and
the executive) receive clear, concise and accurate information
about human rights and the provisions of international law. The
Government must make clear how, if at all, this process may affect
the reservations or declarations that may be made to any one treaty.
EQUALITY BILL
5. Please see written evidence from CRAE
and Young Equals submitted in June 2009 for legislative scrutiny
of the Equality Bill.
IMMIGRATION SIMPLIFICATION
BILL (DRAFT)
Protecting children in the immigration system
6. The draft Immigration Simplification
Bill will bring together a broad range of legislation which has
affected every stage of the immigration process. CRAE welcomes
this attempt to streamline and simplify immigration legislation,
but urges the Government to ensure that this does not have the
unintended consequence of weakening existing protection for children
in the immigration process. Despite the Government lifting its
wide-ranging reservation to the UNCRC concerning immigration,
we have a number of serious concerns regarding the current system,
which we do not want to see exacerbated. These concerns include
but are not limited to: the detention of asylum-seeking children;
the lack of data on the number of children seeking asylum; the
lack of independent oversight of reception conditions for unaccompanied
children who have to be returned; and the prosecution of children
over the age of 10 if they do not possess valid documentation
upon entry to the UK.[78]
IMPROVING SCHOOLS
AND SAFEGUARDING
CHILDREN BILL
Educational guarantees for children and parents
7. CRAE welcomes the introduction of educational
guarantees for children and their parents and hopes that the Government
will ensure that sufficient funds are in place to make these guarantees
a reality. In particular we welcome the guarantee that all children
will go to a school where they are taught in a way that meets
their needs and have the opportunity to express their views. We
remain concerned, however, that the Government is delaying implementation
of the new duty on school governing bodies to "invite and
consider" the views of students.[79]
In October 2008 Ministers gave assurances that these matters
should include delivery of the curriculum, behaviour, school uniform,
school food, health and safety, equality and sustainability.[80]
In light of the proposed stronger powers for schools to enforce
Home School Agreements, it is crucial that school discipline shows
respect for children's human rights in both policy and practice.
Information sharing for Local Safeguarding Children
Boards
8. In the drive to protect children through
information sharing, it is crucial that children's rights to privacy
and confidentiality are maintained. There are existing concerns
regarding the security, privacy, transparency, accuracy and proportionality
of databases such as ContactPoint, and children themselves have
voiced concerns about what information is held about them, and
where it goes. Explicit guidance and good training is needed to
ensure that practitioners working with children and their parents
are equipped to deal with the issue of informed consent for information
sharing. Such guidance should make clear the importance of privacy
rights as laid out in international and domestic law. CRAE urges
the Government to establish a clear independent lead for the protection
of children's privacy rights, particularly but not exclusively
in relation to computerised databases and the collection and retention
of biometric data on children.
Monitoring arrangements for children educated
at home
9. While CRAE welcomes some form of registration
and monitoring of home education, this must be proportionate and
focus on the quality of the education being provided, in line
with Article 29 of the UNCRC. These proposals should make
sure that children and young people, whose parents opt to educate
them at home, do not miss out on the educational opportunities
and support available to their peers. The Government should also
use the opportunity to ensure that the forthcoming bill provides
for children and young people of sufficient understanding to initially
and periodically be given their own say in whether, and how, they
are home-educated.
Media reporting of family proceedings
10. The recent move to open family court
hearings to the media has been heavily criticised by NGOs and
lawyers, and there has already been a significant amount of confusion
about the rules permitting media coverage of such cases. Although
the courts have been given discretion to restrict media attendance
in certain circumstances, and the Government has committed to
protecting the privacy of children involved in family proceedings,[81]
children's rights activists remain concerned that the rights of
children involved in these hearings (including their right to
privacy) are not being given sufficient priority in the Government's
drive for further transparency and accountability.
POLICING, CRIME
AND PRIVATE
SECURITY BILL
Reducing reporting requirements on stop and search
forms
11. CRAE is concerned that the reduction
of reporting requirements for police on stop and search forms
may weaken safeguards for children who are subject to stop and
search. In 2008, 2,331 stop and searches were carried out
by the Metropolitan Police on under-15s under section 44 of
the Terrorism Act 2000. Fifty-eight of these involved children
under the age of nine.[82]
The Independent Police Complaints Commission is currently investigating
complaints concerning the stop and search of two young girls aged
six and 11 and a boy aged nine.[83]
CRAE has called for clear guidelines on the stopping and searching
of young children, taking account of children's views and framed
by human rights requirements.
Additions to the DNA database
12. The proposed new police power for post-conviction
DNA sampling and taking of fingerprints should not include children.
The Government should establish a general presumption that DNA
samples will not be taken from children following arrest, charge
or conviction unless this is required for the purposes of investigating
the offence for which the child was arrested. The retention of
the DNA profiles of children and young people should never be
indefinite and must always be subject to regular review, including
automatic review when any child whose DNA profile has been retained
reaches the age of 18.[84]
CRAE urges the Government to significantly revise its proposals
for the DNA database in order to achieve both proportionality
and a sufficient differentiation between adults and children in
the collection and retention of DNA.
Protecting women and girls from violence
13. CRAE welcomes the opportunity in the
bill to consider recommendations from the Home Office consultation
on violence against women and girls.[85]
The Government must take care to ensure that all forms of violence
against children and young people, including in domestic settings,
are included in its legal definitions. We welcome its adoption
of the UN definition of violence against women and girls. The
Government has yet to implement a coherent response to the recommendations
made in the UN Study on Violence Against Children. There is still
no co-ordinated, comprehensive system for recording and analysing
all instances of violence against children and young people. A
cabinet-level minister should be given responsibility for co-ordinating
the implementation of the recommendations of the UN Study, and
for overseeing the development of a national strategy focusing
explicitly on ending all forms of violence against children and
young people.
Support for parents with children involved in
anti-social behaviour
14. CRAE welcomes the provision of support
for parents struggling with their child's behaviour. It is crucial
that parenting assessments and Parenting Orders provide effective
support for families, and do not simply become a paper trail leading
to the criminal justice system. We do not believe that it is appropriate
or helpful to criminalise people for non-criminal activity. The
disproportionate application of Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs)
to children (as compared to adults) has raised particular concern
with regard to the appropriateness and effectiveness of their
use with children. In October 2008 the UN Committee on the
Rights of the Child called for a review of their application to
under-18s. Positive moves by the Government to provide support
to families do not dispel concerns about the Government's promotion
of the anti-social behaviour agenda as a solution to the "problem"
of children and young people.
30 October 2009
78 Permitted via section 2 of the Asylum and Immigration
Act 2004 Back
79
Education and Skills Act 2008 Back
80
House of Lords debate, 11 November 2008: Hansard Column 573 Back
81
Ministry of Justice (2008). Family Justice in View Back
82
Metropolitan Police Authority (2009). Yearly statistics Back
83
Independent Police Complaints Commission press release (10 September
2009). Managed investigation into stop and search complaint Back
84
Standing Committee for Youth Justice (2009). Keeping the right
people on the DNA database: response on behalf of the SCYJ Back
85
Home Office (2009). Together we can end violence against women
and girls Back
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