State of Children’s Rights in England 2011: Review of Government action on United Nations’ recommendations for strengthening children’s rights in the UK

Every 5 years, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) issues a comprehensive report on the UK’s implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. In October 2008, the UNCRC issued 118 recommendations applying to children’s rights in England. The aim of this annual report is to summarise key developments in children’s human rights in England over the 12 months (November 2010 to November 2011), specifically reviewing Government action on these 118 recommendations. In preparing this report, CRAE examined all significant developments in law and policy over the past 12 months; analysed official data relating to children’s well-being; scrutinised information made available through their own and others’ Freedom of Information (FOI) requests and parliamentary questions; and read relevant research and consultation documents reporting children’s own views and testimony.
According to the report, there had been significant improvement on just 18 of the recommendations, three had been fully met and progress was expected in another 13. Government actions have in fact undermined children’s rights in 15 of the UN’s recommendations and no progress had been made regarding 59 others. In addition, children’s rights are at a risk of being undermined in a further 10 recommendations.The government has been particularly criticised for not meeting the UN’s call for ministers to “take urgent measures to address the intolerance and inappropriate characterisation of children, especially adolescents, within society, including the media”.