childrens rights

Report by the UK Government on progress towards the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Consultation document seeking views on the draft Scottish Government response to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child's 'concluding observations' on the UK's record on ensuring the rights of all children.

In the last seven years the number of children locked up on remand has increased by 41%. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child says that imprisonment should only be used as a measure of last resort. This report on the overuse of remand for children is based on information gathered from a number of sources: interviews with senior practitioners and sentencers; a literature review of research and statistics; a survey of bail and remand officers; a national seminar. It discusses why the problem has arisen and presents a series of twelve policy and practice solutions.

Document providing statistical information on various aspects of children's lives in the UK such as care, health and education services.

This resource is the third in a series of lectures designed to honour the memory and achievement of Lord Kilbrandon who wrote one of the most influential policy statements on how a society should deal with 'children in trouble'. This lecture discusses justice, children and the hearings system.

Report by the Welsh Assembly Government on progress towards the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Wales.

This research project was commissioned by the Scottish Executive to find out how advocacy for children in the Children’s Hearings System compares with arrangements in other UK systems of child welfare and youth justice and those internationally, and what children and young people and the professionals who work with them think about advocacy arrangements in the Children’s Hearings System and how these can be improved.

The children's hearings system, Scotland's unique system of juvenile justice, commenced operating on 15 April 1971. The system is centred on the welfare of the child. A fundamental principle is that the needs of the child should be the key test and that children who offend and children who are in need of care and protection should be dealt with in the same system. Cases relating to children who may require compulsory measures of intervention are considered by an independent panel of trained lay people.

This report has been written by Save the Children, an international child’s rights organisation, working in Scotland, the UK and in over 60 countries to achieve a better world for children. It discusses the Community Partners Programme, which was set up to explore if active community participation was an effective means of countering children and young people’s social exclusion and assisting them in securing their place as full citizens alongside others.

In late summer of 2008, Young Scot was commissioned by the Scottish Government to seek the views of young people from across Scotland on what they thought about the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child's Concluding Observations relating to the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Right of the Child (UNCRC). The consultation explored the levels of awareness children and young people had regarding children's rights and their thoughts on which rights were most important for them, and for Scotland as a whole, to take action on.