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Focus on children and young people
A collective of more than fifty children’s charities and experts call for urgent action to ensure the incorporation of the United Nations Convention on the Right of the Child into Scots law makes a genuine difference.
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Scotland’s first national observatory of children’s rights was launched in Edinburgh on 28th February, with Professor Jennifer Davidson, Executive Director of Inspiring Children’s Futures and Executive Director of the Centre for Excellence for Children’s Care and Protection, joining the Minister for Children Maree Todd, children, and observatory partners, for the launch. The Observatory is an inter-disciplinary collaborative of organisations including the Universities of Edinburgh and Strathclyde, Together (Scottish Alliance for Children’s Rights), Children’s Parliament, Scottish Youth Parliament and the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland. Alongside the launch of this new resource for Scotland, Together, the Scottish Alliance for Children’s Rights, published the latest State of Children’s Rights progress report setting out the current status of children’s rights in Scotland.
The Observatory aims to bring together children and experts from across Scotland to amplify the impact of research on policy debates, both nationally and internationally. It will work to improve the day to day lives and experiences of children and young people.
The State of Children’s Rights report plays an essential role in enabling the UN Committee to hold the Scottish and UK governments to account regarding implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). It details a number of areas where substantial progress has been made in recent years, while also drawing attention to areas in which Scotland currently falls short of ensuring children’s rights are being met. In particular, the report highlights the importance of delivering a key government pledge to incorporate the UNCRC into Scots law by 2021.
At present, the Scottish Government plans to present a bill that directly incorporates the UNCRC provisions that fall within devolved powers, but experts say rapid progress is needed. In order for the UNCRC to be written into Scots law by 2021, the bill must be introduced to the Scottish Parliament within a matter of months to ensure children’s human rights are fully protected, supported and promoted.
Additionally, the report points to Britain’s exit from the European Union and the subsequent loss of human rights protections as a further reason for Scotland to incorporate the UNCRC into Scots law. It also highlights child poverty as the main indicator of Scotland’s long way to go to ensure children’s human rights are protected and enforced.
The Centre for Youth & Criminal Justice (CYCJ) has published a new report calling for ‘rights respecting’ reform to Scotland’s youth justice system, if the country is to uphold its commitment to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).
Rights Respecting? Scotland’s approach to children in conflict with the law was launched on 30th January 2020 at the Kilbrandon Lecture on children’s services and the rights of children. The lecture was given by leading human rights lawyer, Professor Manfred Nowak, who led the Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty.
This report is the first of its kind to translate the UNCRC into Scottish specific actions to improve policy, practice and experience in youth justice. The report was written by CYCJ’s director, Dr Claire Lightowler, who took a year’s sabbatical to dedicate herself to exploring the complex and often emotive issues around offending by children, based on CYCJ’s belief that youth justice in Scotland requires a reconfiguration on a scale not seen since Kilbrandon. Dr Claire Lightowler said: “We saw the incorporation of UNCRC as a window of opportunity. There’s something fundamental about the challenge of levelling up between welfare and needs on one hand and control and punishment on the other, yet little thought has been given to this from a rights perspective.” “If we are holding traumatised children solely responsible for their actions, putting them through processes they do not understand and putting barriers in the way of their loving and caring relationships, is this justice in the true meaning of the word? There is some truth in the focus on children as troubled, challenged, vulnerable and challenging, and it is often wellmeaning, but it can have negative unintended consequences for the most disadvantaged children.”
Photo credited to Tammy Henderson on behalf of The Children’s Parliament
“At the heart of this report is an argument for a shift from viewing children in conflict with the law as troubled, challenging and vulnerable to children as rights holders. Rights are for all children, and it is worrying when we fail to fulfil our legal and moral obligations to the very children we are holding to account through the justice system.”
Bruce Adamson, Children and Young People’s Commissioner for Scotland, said: “This robust and impressive report is the first piece of work that comprehensively examines Scotland’s youth justice system from a rights based perspective. It demands that we look critically at our society and how we value children.”
Comic supports young people in dealing with bereavement
A comic aimed at helping young people deal with grief and bereavement has been produced in a project involving the Centre for Youth & Criminal Justice (CYCJ) and the University of Strathclyde.
Teenagers from across Scotland shared their experiences of loss with academics from Strathclyde and project leaders at the University of Dundee. The result was a 40-page publication titled When People Die: Stories From Young People, with images, stories and insights that arose from a series of workshops held at HMP & YOI Polmont and the charities Richmond’s Hope, Barnardo’s Scotland and Children’s Hospices Across Scotland (CHAS).
The intention of the year-long project was to explore how comics can help generate reflective and confident life stories for young people who have experienced bereavement and help destigmatise conversations about loss and grief. In doing so, the comic will not only directly reach out to young people but will also enable parents, carers, teachers and peers to provide better support in the event of bereavement.
Nina Vaswani, CYCJ’s Research Fellow, was a partner in the project. She said:
“I’m so pleased to see this important comic launched during National Grief Awareness Week. We know that bereavement is something that is experienced by many children as they grow up, and we also know that, with the right support from family, friends and professionals, many children can adapt to and learn
to live with their loss, without any significant long term negative effects. But we hear from parents, carers and teachers that, despite wanting to offer support, they often lack the confidence, knowledge or skills to talk about death, dying and bereavement with children. Understandably, it can be difficult for people to know what to say, or what to do, in a time of grief.
“We want to help normalise and support conversations with children about death, bereavement and grief, and that’s where this comic comes in. Comics are a great way to reach a wide audience, and are an important medium for communicating difficult or sensitive messages. When words might be hard to find, an image can tell the story instead.
“All of the stories in this comic have come from children and young people who have been bereaved themselves, and who wanted to share their experiences to help others. We hope that their honesty, courage, wisdom and creativity will help provide information and comfort to other children who have been bereaved, as well as being a resource for parents, carers and teachers of all children to help create discussion and dialogue.”
Dr. Christine Jones (SWSP) discusses sibling estrangement with BBC Scotland
BBC Scotland featured a story on their flagship programme, The Nine, on 4th February about sibling estrangement when children enter into the care system. The news piece will feature Dr Christine Jones, Senior Lecturer in the School of Social Work and Social Policy, about her research, which was conducted with Dr Gillian Henderson of Scottish Children’s Reporters Administration. The piece was timed to be broadcast on the release of the findings of the Independent Care Review led by Fiona Duncan. Drs Jones and Henderson have highlighted the high numbers of children in the care system who grow up apart from their brothers and sisters and lose touch. The research highlights the lack of good quality comprehensive national data and, as a result, the relative invisibility of this problem until now.
The issue of sibling estrangement is a key area of concern for the Independent Care Review and we await their recommendations in relation to this important area of policy and practice. The ICR findings are also launched at the same time that Scottish Parliament is proposing to strengthen the law to place a legal duty on local authorities to promote sibling relationships when children enter care.
