WIREDGOV

Oral Statement at the Pre-Sessional Working Group of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child

Recognising the limited time available at this session, and the expertise and jurisdiction of colleagues in other NHRIs and in NGOs, the Equality and Human Rights Commission would like to highlight three issues to the Committee; enhancing the status of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in domestic law, the impact of social security reform on children and child poverty, and children’s access to civil justice.

Enhancing the status of the CRC in domestic law

The EHRC regrets that the UK Government has not directly incorporated the CRC into UK law. The commitment of the UK Government to give due consideration to the CRC when making new policy or legislation is neither adequate nor enforceable. The UK Government failed to give due consideration to the CRC when developing the Modern Slavery Bill, the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill and the Welfare Reform and Work Bill.

Supreme Court judges in the UK have recently raised serious concerns, in two cases, about the lack of evidence to show that the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions adequately considered the best interests of the child. These concerns related to his decisions to implement the household benefit cap; and to enforce a general rule that a child’s Disability Living Allowance should be suspended following his 84th day in hospital.

The UK Government has proposed to repeal the UK’s Human Rights Act and replace it with a Bill of Rights. The EHRC considers that any legislation to replace the Human Rights Act should strengthen the status of international human rights in the UK. This would be in line with the recommendation of the UN Human Rights Committee in July.

The Human Rights Act has been of great importance in providing children with a remedy when their rights under the European Convention on Human Rights have been violated. The forthcoming consultation on a Bill of Rights provides the opportunity for further consideration of how protection for children’s rights could be increased in the UK. The Scottish and Welsh Governments have models which might be appropriate across the UK. An enhanced status for the CRC should entail greater access to remedy, increased scrutiny of legislation and policy, and a higher level of accountability.

Impact of social security reform on children and child poverty

Reforms to the social security system introduced by the previous UK Government and those proposed by the current UK Government have affected, or will affect, children across the country and raise serious concerns in relation to the implementation of Articles 26 and 27 of the CRC on the rights to social security and an adequate standard of living. UK Government impact assessments of social security reform since 2010 suggest that the it has failed to prioritise children’s rights where resources were limited. Impact assessments by the current UK Government of the Welfare Reform and Work Bill have not adequately considered the best interests of the child, despite the clear impact on children of a further reduction in the household benefit cap and a change to the measurement of child poverty. A thorough impact assessment will help Parliamentarians to debate the Bill and to consider alternative options and appropriate mitigation.

We consider that measures of child poverty should continue to track changes in relative and absolute income poverty and material deprivation, and efforts to address it will not be effective unless they recognise and tackle in-work poverty and work towards improving conditions of work. A full cumulative impact assessment of social security reforms on children is needed, and impacts identified should be considered carefully in future spending reviews.

Access to civil law justice

The reforms introduced by the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) are having a number of particular impacts on children. Entitlement to assistance with legal costs has been removed for most non-asylum immigration, education, prison law and private family law cases. This presents obstacles to children and their parents or carers in accessing legal advice and assistance where children’s rights are engaged and have potentially been breached.

Vulnerable groups of children, such as undocumented children, would fail the proposed residence test for civil legal aid. The residence test presents serious concerns in relation to Articles 2, 3 and 12 of the CRC on non-discrimination, the best interests of the child and the right of the child to be heard.The UK Government’s proposed safeguards may not mitigate the impact that it would have.

In order to give full effect to the right of children to be heard in proceedings which affect them, the UK Government should monitor the impact of the LASPO reforms on children’s rights under the CRC, and withdraw proposals for a residence test for civil legal aid.

EHRC’s work with civil society on CRC reporting

The EHRC has been working with the Children’s Rights Alliance for England (CRAE) to support children’s Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and children and young people to submit their own evidence about children’s human rights to the UN Committee.  With support and funding from EHRC, CRAE has also organised a visit to Geneva for a group of eighteen children and young people who have worked to develop their own submission to the Committee. The children and young people will have the opportunity to report on their findings, answer questions and share their views with the Committee. Alongside this work, EHRC has funded the Scottish Youth Parliament to bring two young people to Geneva to present evidence to the Committee.

The EHRC also recently worked with the British Institute for Human Rights and children and young people to develop a hub where young people can find information about their rights under the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The hub contains five factsheets and a short video and can be found on our Young People's Rights and the CRC page. 

These activities have been undertaken by the EHRC in recognition of the methods of work set out by the Paris Principles and the recommendation of the Committee on the Rights of the Child for National Human Rights Institutions to “ensure that the views of children are expressed and heard on matters concerning their human rights” and to “advocate for and facilitate meaningful participation by children’s rights NGOs [in] international instruments on issues affecting children”.