UNCRC Concluding Observations
In June 2008, charities who work with and for children and young people, the UK Children’s Commissioners and some children and young people met with the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.
Read the Children’s Commissioners’ joint report here.
Read about the children and young people who met the Committee here.
To watch DVD clips about the reporting process go to the Funky Dragon website
In September 2008 the UK government went to answer questions about children’s rights in the UK from the UN Committee.
Once the UN Committee had heard from everyone they made a list of things they think need to change to protect children’s rights in the UK. These are call the Concluding Observations.
In October 2008 the UN Committee made 124 recommendations in their Concluding Observations.
Some of their recommendations were for the government to
- make a law that means physical punishment of children is illegal
- look at how effective antisocial behaviour orders (ASBOs) are
- raise the age when criminal law applies to children
- make sure that asylum seeking children who come to the UK without an adult are given a guardian to look after them
- do something about the all the negative stories about children especially on television
- make sure that children can be more involved in all parts of their education
To read the full concluding observations – click here.
The next UK government report to the UN Committee will be in 2014.
One of Keith’s jobs as Children’s Commissioner for Wales, is to check that the changes in the Concluding Observations are made by government