Stronger laws on children’s rights come into force in Wales
2 May 2014 03:46 PM
New legal duties on all
the Ministers of the Welsh Government to consider the rights of children when
exercising any of their functions, including making spending decisions,
creating policies or changing the law, came into force
yesterday
In 2012 Wales became the only
nation in the UK and one of the few countries in the world to adopt the United
Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) when Assembly Members
unanimously voted for the ground-breaking Rights of Children and Young Persons
(Wales) Measure 2011.
The Convention is a human rights
treaty which sets out the civil, political, economic, social, health and
cultural rights of children under the age of 18. Under the treaty children are
considered a vulnerable group who need additional rights to ensure they are
protected and can participate in matters that affect them.
Since the vote in 2012, Welsh
Ministers only had to consider the UNCRC when developing new policies or
legislation and/or amending existing ones. With the advent of the additional
new legal duties coming in to force, Welsh Ministers now have to go even
further and consider the rights of children when exercising any of their
functions, from deciding budgets, to developing policy and giving guidance to
public bodies.
The Welsh Government has put in
place a Children’s Rights Scheme to reflect these new arrangements and
ensure that they comply with the duty set out in law.
Communities and Tackling Poverty
Minister Jeff Cuthbert said:
“Wales can be proud that
we have placed the rights of children and young people into law. Whenever
a Welsh Government Minister exercises any of their functions, which includes
creating a policy or changing the law, we now have a legal duty to consider how
our actions impact on the rights of children and young people.
“This may seem like a
complex legalistic change, but has at its heart a move to provide children and
young people with an increased awareness of their rights and the support we as
a society can provide them.”
Examples of how the
Children’s Rights Measure has worked in the last two years include the
Welsh Government working to develop new statutory guidance on the safety of
walked routes to school. Another example of its direct impact was seen in the
last legislative stages of the ground-breaking Human Transplantation (Wales)
Act 2013 where amendments were made in order to give greater effect to the
UNCRC, allowing competent children to be afforded the choice of appointing a
representative to express consent to organ donation.
Links
UNCRC