Where we came from
The Children’s Legal Centre grew from the work of the Observatory on Children’s Human Rights. The Observatory works on embedding rights through organisational and strategic change, on methods of empowering children to conduct research and promotes accountability to children. The Observatory Team were pivotal in offering expert advice that saw the passing of the Rights of Children and Young Persons (Wales) Measure into law in 2011.
However, despite Wales’ progressive legislative and policy framework on children’s rights, it was the only UK nation not to have a children’s legal centre! From research as part of reporting to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and also our own research, we learned there was not enough publicly available legal information, advice and support, especially for children on the law in Wales.
In 2016, with the help of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and collaborative engagement with many people and organisations, the Children’s Legal Centre was launched to address this need.
What we do
The Children’s Legal Centre Wales provides Wales-wide, online bilingual legal advice and information for children. We provide information on the Law as it affects children in Wales and run an education programme.
We are a small team team, so we are not currently able to offer legal advice directly to members of the public. However, we are able to refer children and their parents to the Swansea Law Clinic and our respected legal partners.
We support strategic litigation cases and policy advocacy, please go to ‘Our Activity’, web pages for our key calls for change for children and explore our website for further information.
Our supporters
We are so grateful for the support of the Paul Hamyln Foundation, the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, the Legal Education Foundation and Legal Education Research Network, and for the ongoing support of Swansea University who fund our work.
We are also very grateful for the pro-bono support of wonderful lawyers on our All- Wales Lawyers for Children Network and our fantastic members on the All-Wales Children’s Rights Strategic Litigation Group.
We also work with other law schools, lawyers and policy leaders and anyone who wants to make children’s human rights a reality and make the law accessible to children.
Please get in touch if you would like to be part of our growing network of supporters or if you would benefit from any of our services.