UNCRC Incorporation into Law

Our key call for change:

• The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) is directly incorporated into UK and Welsh law.

Background information & introduction to our work

At CLCW we are focussing on promoting change on the “General Measures of Implementation”, which are, government, parliamentary and judicial strategies for fulfilling the rights of all children.

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, in its General Comment No.5 recommends State parties:

• fully and directly incorporate the UNCRC,
• have a Minister for Children with clear oversight for children’s rights,
• conduct children’s rights impact assessments on all policies and budgets,
• have a national action plan on children’s rights,
• ensure there is clear responsibility for raising awareness and understanding of the UNCRC.

These are methods to better implement the UNCRC and have a considerable impact over children’s access to their rights. We have been monitoring and advocating for change on these developments in Wales (For further info see Dr Croke’s Blog here).

In Wales, we have made progress on some of these areas, such as indirect incorporation of the UNCRC. The team that later became the Children’s Legal Centre Wales were pivotal in offering expert advice that saw the passing of the Rights of Children and Young Persons (Wales) Measure into law in 2011. This means Welsh Government Ministers must give ‘due regard’ to part 1 of the UNCRC and specified Optional Protocols in everything they do.

We recognise that the ‘due regard duty’ to the UNCRC under the Rights Measure has helped to embed children’s rights into national government. However, it has done little to enhance legal accountability for children’s rights, as the legislation, does not offer children the option to have their UNCRC rights enforced in a court of law.

In Scotland, the UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act passed into law in July 2024. This legislation goes further than our law in Wales by requiring all public bodies, to act compatibly with the UNCRC when exercising their functions, meaning that children in Scotland can have their legal rights enforced in a court of law.

We believe that children in Wales should be entitled to the same level of protection and a Bill should be introduced that directly incorporates the UNCRC.