AYJ joins coalition of children’s charities calling on the Government to urgently put children at the heart of its agenda following critical UN report on children’s rights
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has today published its Concluding Observations on the UK, setting out its concerns and recommendations regarding children’s rights, highlighting “limited progress” to bring the “draconian and punitive” youth justice system in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).
The AYJ joins a coalition of children’s charities, led by the Children’s Rights Alliance for England (CRAE), calling for urgent Government action to address the issues raised by the UN Committee and implement its recommendations by putting children at the centre of its decision-making by appointing a senior Cabinet level minister with responsibility for children’s rights alongside publishing a children’s rights action plan. Read the full press release on CRAE’s website here.
The report highlights a wide range of issues detrimentally impacting children and a number of areas the UN Committee is deeply concerned about, including persistent discrimination, poverty, mental health, the prevalence of violence against children, including by public agencies, and the youth justice system.
The Committee’s recommendations include:
Fully incorporate the UNCRC into national legislation, and develop mandatory child-rights impact assessments
Create a ministerial lead at the national level, and develop and adopt comprehensive policies and action plans, on the implementation of the UNCRC
Raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility to at least 14 years of age
Explicitly prohibit, without exception, strip searches on children, and the use of harmful devices including spit hoods, tasers, and plastic bullets
Ensure stop and search use is proportionate and non-discriminatory, and improve monitoring
Prohibit the presence of police in schools
End the remanding of children into police custody and ensure no child is held in police custody overnight
Introduce a clear statutory definition of the criminal exploitation of children
Prevent and combat “gang-related violence and knife crime”, and protect children from such violence, including by: addressing the social factors and root causes, establishing child-sensitive early warning mechanisms for children who seek protection, adopting ‘gang-exit’ programmes, and ending the use of child spies
Ensure children are not prosecuted as adult offenders, without exception, and the child justice system and criminal record regime is applied to all children who were below the age of 18 years when the offence was committed
Address the overrepresentation of racially minoritised children in custody and develop measures to prevent racial profiling by the police
Ensure detention is a last resort and for the shortest possible period of time and is reviewed on a regular basis with a view to its withdrawal. Abolish life imprisonment. Avoid the use and reduce the maximum duration of pre-trial detention. End the use of solitary confinement, ensure any separation is for the shortest possible time, a last resort, and supervised
Develop early intervention for children and actively promote diversion, mediation and counselling, and the use of non-custodial measures
Commenting on the report, AYJ Interim Chief Executive Saqib Deshmukh said:
“While these recommendations are critical and most welcome, the fact that many are reiterations of those made in 2016 shows just how little progress has been made since the UK’s last examination. The Committee is right to be deeply concerned about the ‘draconian and punitive’ youth justice system. Each day that the government sits by and does nothing to bring the justice system in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, more children are harmed. It must act now and urgently implement recommended reforms to end violence against children at the hands of the police, increase the age of criminal responsibility, address racism and disproportionality, end solitary confinement and life imprisonment and ensure custody is a last resort.”