Delivering on children’s rights

As set out in our legislation, all our work is underpinned by children’s rights, notably the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, specifically here:

Article 4

• States Parties shall undertake all appropriate legislative, administrative, and other measures for the implementation of the rights recognized in the present Convention. With regard to economic, social and cultural rights, States Parties shall undertake such measures to the maximum extent of their available resources and, where needed, within the framework of international co-operation.

Article 42

• States Parties undertake to make the principles and provisions of the Convention widely known, by appropriate and active means, to adults and children alike.

The CSCA set out the legislative basis for a Children and Young People’s Strategy (CYPS), and in December 2020, a ten-year Strategy was signed off by the Executive and went live.

You can find out more about the strategy here:

Children and Young People’s Strategy

The Committee emphasised the importance of a unit, close to the heart of government, responsible for making children more visible, and coordination of delivery for children, across government departments and agencies. In Northern Ireland the Children’s and Young People’s Unit holds responsibility for coordination of the implementation of children’s rights across government, and sits within the Department of Education.

Children and Young People | Department of Education (education-ni.gov.uk

General Comment 5 outlined the need for a continuous process of child impact assessment and evaluation to ensure that the best interests of the child are a primary consideration in all actions concerning children. This involves assessing the likely impact of any proposed law, policy or budgetary allocation on children before decisions are made, and then subsequently evaluating the action impact of implementation. While previously only a limited number of CRIAs have been undertaken in NI, there is a growing recognition of their importance.

NICCY has supported this through providing advice to government departments, and the development of NI-specific materials and an online training programme.

You can find out more about our CRIA work here

The Committee has emphasised the importance of identifying and analysing the resources dedicated to children, stating that economic policies are never neutral in their effect on children’s rights. It is particularly important to ensure that children, particularly marginalised and disadvantaged children, are protected from the adverse impacts of economic policies or financial downturns.

In the absence of government information on its spending on children, this is an area NICCY has undertaken significant work over the years, including:

• In 2008, two reports analysing public expenditure in NI for spending on children
• In 2014, an exploratory study on children’s budgeting
• In 2016, a fund-mapping report on public expenditure on children
• In 2018, as part of the Still Waiting report on mental health services for children, NICCY provided a detailed analysis of public expenditure on emotional and mental health services for children and young people

The Committee highlighted the obligation on state parties to develop training and capacity-building for all those working with children and involved in the implementation of children’s rights. This should emphasise the status of the child as a rights holder, increase knowledge and understanding of the Convention and to encourage active respect for all its provisions.

While the general understanding of children’s rights has improved over recent years, and there are pockets of good practice, there has not been any systematic training process for all those working across government and children’s services. To remedy this, NICCY has developed an online training modules on children’s rights which is available to officials and professionals through the NICS LiNKs training platform.  Link to this module

NICCY also provides training to legal professionals and other practitioners working with children and young people through its legal CPD events, and on a range of specific areas.

Find out more on our legal team’s CPD events here

We have also provided materials for teachers/youth workers to use in school and club settings to raise the awareness of children about rights through e.g. their inclusion on the CCEA UNCRC Resource Hub and via schools’ C2k platform

Find out more about the UNCRC Resource Hub here

In 2002 the Committee published General Comment 2, focussing entirely on the role of independent national human rights institutions in the protection and promotion of the rights of the child.

It emphasised the complimentary role of independent human rights institutions to effective government structures for children, and that independence is essential:

“The role of national human rights institutions is to monitor independently the State’s compliance and progress towards implementation and to do all it can to ensure full respect for children’s rights. While this may require the institution to develop projects to enhance the promotion and protection of children’s rights, it should not lead to the Government delegating its monitoring obligations to the national institution. It is essential that institutions remain entirely free to set their own agenda and determine their own activities.” UNCRC. (2002), General Comment 2 on The role of independent national human rights institutions in the protection and promotion of the rights of the child, Geneva, para 25.

You can find out more about NICCY’s role as in Independent Human Rights Institution for Children here.

Also provide a link to the Reviews of our legislation?

Article 42 of the UNCRC requires that ‘States Parties undertake to make the principles and provisions of the Convention widely known, by appropriate and active means, to adults and children alike.’ This includes disseminating the text of the UNCRC, and including learning about children’s rights and the convention in school curricula.

Although currently not mandatory, children’s and young people’s rights are reflected with the NI school curriculum throughout Key Stages 1 to 4. Ensuring that young people understand their rights through the UNCRC are key elements of the PD&MU (Personal Development & Mutual Understanding) and LLW (Learning for Life & Work) curricula. It provides an understanding for young people of how their lives are governed, and how they can participate to improve the quality of their own lives, and that of others through democratic processes.

Pupils should have opportunities to consider issues of diversity and inclusion, equality and justice, human rights and social responsibility; to make reasoned value judgements about desirable action in particular situations, especially where democracy is under challenge or where values are in conflict and compromise may be required. Reflective of Article 42, the 2016 Concluding Observations recommended that children’s rights education should become a mandatory part of the curriculum.

Every 6-8 years the UK and devolved governments’ implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is examined by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. NICCY has a key role in working with the other Children’s Commissioners across the UK to produce ‘shadow reports’, providing an independent, expert assessment of how effectively the governments have delivered on children’s rights.

You can find information here about the 2021-23 reporting process. We will need to draft this

You can find information here about previous reporting processes.