Response to European Commission consultation: EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child

Executive Summary

Introduction

The Equality and Human Rights Commission is an independent statutory body established under the provisions of the Equality Act 2006 with powers to enforce equality legislation on age, disability, gender, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation and transgender status in Great Britain. We have a tripartite mandate of equality, human rights and good relations.

Framework for protection of children’s rights in Great Britain

Here in Britain, children's rights are protected by a mix of law and policy with their rights and welfare promoted by institutions such as ourselves and the Children’s Commissioners for England, Wales and Scotland.

Whilst the UK has ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), it has not incorporated the Convention into domestic law and thus it is not enforceable in courts nor are there any consequences for breach of the Convention. However some of its provisions have been implemented into domestic law, fully or in part by the Human Rights Act 1998.

Socio-economic rights are recognised through policy legislation such as Every Child Matters and the legal framework of the Children Act 2004. However, the real benefit which the UNCRC brings is the single focus on children's rights and a comprehensive framework for ensuring that the child's best interests is central to all areas of policy and decision-making which has an impact on children, not just children specific legislation.

Current initiatives by the EHRC

The first section of this document provides information on the current initiatives being undertaken by the EHRC in relation to children and young people. It begins with a brief overview of the Equality Measurement Framework (EMF) which is currently being developed in order to provide information about individuals and groups from an equality and human rights perspective, mapping the extent of inequality in 21st Century Britain. A separate framework for children and young people is also being considered and within the Vulnerable groups of children section we highlight some of the central and valuable capabilities on which the framework will be based, namely around the Life, Health, Physical Security and Legal Security domains.

Child- friendly justice

Within the next section we highlight the main obstacles and problems the EHRC believe children face in relation to justice systems in particular issues surrounding the age of criminal responsibility, children in custody, immigration and detention centres and asylum-seeking/refugee children. We are concerned that out of all of the European Union States, the UK has the lowest age of criminal responsibility at 10 years of age and that children of this age can be charged with serious offences such as robbery or murder and even tried in a crown court. Further concerns are raised here about the high number of children in custody, in particular, out of 2,236 children held in custody, 80% are held in prison. We then focus on the use of physical restraint against children in custody which we consider should not be used simply to maintain good order and discipline. Furthermore, we emphasise the EHRC’s call for the UK Government to incorporate into domestic law, the protocols that prevent the frequent transferring of asylum-seeker children from one area to another. And finally in this section we stress a number of concerns including the detention of asylum seeking families and of returning unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.

Vulnerable groups of children

In this section we look at an extensive list of the groups of children in vulnerable situations that were found through the EHRC’s development of the Children’s Measurement Framework. These reflect the emphasis of the UN Human Rights Committee on official recognition of the groups that need to be monitored, and include asylum seekers and refugees; children in the criminal justice system; children at risk of abuse and neglect; young adults in relation to transitional issues; gypsy and traveller children; trafficked children; and children in poverty. The capabilities on which these are based are discussed under domain-specific areas, such as Life: the capability to be alive; Health: the capability to be healthy; Physical Security: the capability to live in physical security; and Legal Security: the capability of knowing you will be protected and treated fairly by the law. We discuss some concerns surrounding the sources of data for the framework, including that the richest source of data, the Tellus Survey, has since been terminated.

The section also covers Child trafficking victims and we welcome the announcement that all necessary legislative and other measures have been taken to initiate the process of ratifying the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. We urge the adoption of this protocol at the earliest opportunity

And finally in this section we look at the impact that EU Article 19 Directive can have on strengthening domestic legislation in the UK. Under the Equality Act 2010, the UK Government have decided to exclude children and young people from the protection of anti discrimination law in the provision of goods, facilities and services and in the exercise of public functions. We believe that the current EU Equal Treatment Directive would serve to strengthen domestic legislation with regards to age discrimination and we believe that the scope of the EU Directive ensuring protection for under 18s should be maintained. This section provides extensive evidence taken from the report Making the Case that age discrimination leads to unequal treatment of children and young people in a range of service areas including health and social care, child protection, public leisure facilities, shops and restaurants, access to public transport and legal services.

Violence against children

This section of our response looks at the Children’s Measurement Framework indicators that are directly related to the situation of violence against children. The capabilities present within both the Life and Physical Security domain of the framework are discussed with examples of indicators such as homicide of children and young people (Life) and violent crime against children and young people (Physical Security).

Child Poverty

Here we outline the number of activities undertaken by the EHRC relating to child poverty. We discuss our involvement during the passage of the Child Poverty Bill through Parliament concentrating on a number of issues, including the targets and definition of poverty which included targets relating to material deprivation and persistence of poverty; consideration of missing or under-represented groups, including gypsy and traveller children, asylum-seeking children and those in the criminal justice system; ensuring the extra costs associated with disability are not hidden; consultation with children and young people who experience poverty and continued dialogues with the Child Poverty Unit to ensure measures within the Child Poverty Act are implemented.

We discuss the work undertaken with Grandparents Plus on a project that examines the grandparental contribution in today’s changing families, and the impact that this has on both older people’s poverty and child poverty. We identify a possible contradiction in government aspirations of raising the employment rate of older workers and parents as it might only be due to grandparent’s availability that parents are in a stable and secure position to access the labour market, thus leading to demands on grandparents as they themselves may want or need to remain in employment themselves. We finally outline a number of recommendations that will enable the whole family to balance their responsibilities between work and family life in ways that support their work and aspirations.

As part of a contribution to reducing child poverty, the EHRC mention the aims of independent review on poverty that Frank Field MP is leading on, including some of the areas where the EHRC can contribute, including the EHRC’s Triennial Review, our report demonstrating how far society is making progress in equality, good relations and human rights.

Public Sector Equality Duty

This area of the report gives a brief background to the Equality Act, and they key role that the public sector Equality Duty, has in ensuring that fairness is at the heart of public bodies’ work and that public services meet the needs of different groups. The Equality Act will give ministers the power to impose specific duties, which are legal requirements designed to help public bodies meet their obligations under the public sector Equality Duty, that is, to ensure that services, including the provision of housing and advocacy, are better designed to allow all children and families, regardless of background, the opportunity to benefit from this support.

Working Better: Pregnant Workers, Parental Leave, Flexible Working

This next section details the EHRC’s belief that positive policies in the area of reconciliation of work and family life create both more equality and an economic benefit for Europe. This belief is promoted through our Working Better Initiative which aims to identify and promote innovative new ways of working which help meet the challenges of the 21st century. We look at our main findings which include increased wellbeing of children, more involvement of fathers in family life and higher educational and occupational mobility namely. Furthermore we re-iterate our recommendations made to the Pregnant Workers’ Directive where we support the Extension of minimum maternity leave entitlement from 14 to 18 weeks continuous leave; The principle of full pay for the 18 weeks of maternity leave and the right to request flexible working upon return from maternity leave. We also look at the impact of maternity, paternity and parental leave arrangements on the choices and constraints for different groups of parents, in particular lone parents. We found that lone mothers are more likely than ‘couple’ mothers to report having no flexible arrangements in their workplace that would enable them to use inflexible childcare. We believe that the findings of Working Better report make a convincing case for reinforcing policies on work-life balance, and for promoting gender-neutral parental leave and we have made a number of recommendations here in promoting a better work-life balance.

Social Inclusion

The EHRC believe that while the importance of diverse and inclusive workplaces have a strong economic rationale, it is important that groups who are not in work, due to disability, age, caring responsibilities or other factors are not also excluded from society. The EHRC therefore calls for the European Commission to strengthen measures to fight social exclusion by ensuring that equality and inclusion within the labour market is addressed, whilst recognising the need for strong social protection for those outside of the labour market; by building on raising the awareness of the 2010 Year Against Poverty and Social Exclusion; by ensuring that all member states exchange best practice and put in place measurable plans to combat social exclusion.

Communication

This last section highlights the projects which the EHRC have been working on over the last year in order to communicate effectively with children and adults on children’s rights, namely; Generation without Prejudice – a project building up a generation of equality and human rights ambassadors which included working with young people at Our Space summer camps to help develop their understanding of equality; A similar project in EHRC Scotland - Young Scot Partnership agreement raising awareness of initiatives such as Young Brits at Art; and finally in EHRC Wales their Croeso project tackled prejudice, particularly in schools and produced a short film on DVD with children and young people about bullying and challenging stereotypes.

Download the full consultation response (Word)

Last Updated: 07 Sep 2010