Dr Rhian Croke, Children’s Rights Strategic Litigation and Policy Advocacy Lead, Children’s Legal Centre Wales – Note of thanks to Professor Ann Skelton, Chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child for delivering the Observatory on the Human Rights of Children Annual Lecture[i], November 2023.
On behalf of the Observatory, it is both an honour and a privilege to close this session by thanking Ann for delivering such a thought provoking, inspiring and enlightening annual lecture. I have been integrally involved in the children’s rights journey since early devolution in Wales, and inspired the first visit, in 2006 of the then, Chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, Professor Jaap Doek, who attended an all-day conference with us in Swansea, and helped to inspire commitments from the main duty bearers in Wales, to monitor and report on the state of children’s rights in Wales. A constructive dialogue continued, anchored in the unparalleled authority of the international human rights treaty system and spear headed a journey that culminated in the Rights of Children and Young Persons (Wales) Measure, that the Observatory and NGO partners, were pivotal in advising and indeed ensuring that it was the most expansive model of legal incorporation on the UNCRC, at the time in the UK.[ii]
That journey has continued with sectoral legislation embracing children’s rights, policies continuing to be underpinned by children’s rights, the use of children’s rights impact assessments by Welsh Government and many public bodies across Wales taking on a children’s rights approach to their work. [iii] [iv]
It is with great pleasure that almost 20 years on, we welcome Ann today, and what is absolutely certain is that Ann your lecture has been equally inspirational and had us all reflecting on journeys to UNCRC implementation and the role of decentralised duty bearers in progressing children’s rights.
The inspiration for the title for this lecture, came from bumping into Ann at the Palais De Wilson, in Geneva, just before entering into the UNCRC pre-sessional hearing, to hear the alternative perspective on children’s rights across the UK. Ann said to me, what the Committee want to really learn about, are what are the strategies for change on children’s rights, what are some parts of the UK State party doing that others are not, who are the ‘disruptors for change?’. Having been involved in some way in the last 3 UNCRC reporting cycles, I found this conversation very refreshing because the focus was not just about the failures of governments and public bodies across the UK, it was about who is striving to make the change and how are they doing it.
As Ann has referred to, today, Scotland and Wales have displayed innovation in the way that they have optimised the context of their current devolved legal settlements to maximise children’s rights, whereas governance arrangements in Northern Ireland have presented deep seated challenges. There should be no discrimination in the enjoyment of rights by children in different regions and as Ann, has explained the Committee focuses on equitability rather than exceptionalism –but the Committee, also recognises and values, positive disruption, the ‘devolution evolution’ and where there has been good progress.
And we must learn from devolved contexts that are making significant progress and seize all opportunities that our governance arrangements and devolved settlements can offer us. For example, we can watch and learn from Scotland entering as Ann has referred to as the ‘revolution on children’s rights’, enhancing legal accountability through the Scottish (UNCRC) Incorporation Bill, introducing a Scottish Child Payment, that has succeeded in bucking the trend on the steep rise in child destitution and raising the minimum age of criminal responsibility that strives to create a justice system that treats children as children.
However, the almost 200 recommendations from the UN Committee in 2023, demonstrates that the scale of non-compliance on children’s rights across the UK, is deeply concerning and that duty bearers must do more to implement and embed their vision for children’s rights.
We need governmental administrations at all levels, being fierce, in the fire breathing Draig goch, kind of way that Ann referred to, embracing a bold vision, that translates children’s rights into reality and:
Sees children as rights holders, that any programme of work or policy must be rooted in the UNCRC, recognising and ensuring that children are entitled to all of their rights and that inequalities that children experience in the fulfilment of their rights are actually rights violations.
A vision that seeks to always understand and tackle the root causes of children’s rights violations, understands children’s lived experiences and that children are experts on their own lives and should be fully empowered to participate in claiming their rights and duty bearers must always be accountable for respecting, protecting and fulfilling them.
Ann has touched on today, concerning developments globally, where there have been push backs to children’s rights and human rights. We must encourage duty bearers to continue to be brave and vigilant to embrace this bold vision.
Civil society must also stay strong in holding duty bearers to account and our amazing young child rights defenders, who are disrupting for change in Wales, and across the planet, should continue exercising their right to protest and shout about their entitlement to claim their rights and advocate for claiming the rights of all children.
I know that Ann being here today, on behalf of the Committee on the Rights of the Child has inspired us all to continue championing children’s rights, and I thank her on behalf of us all for her own and indeed her, committee’s relentless and unwavering commitment to championing the rights of children across the world.
Finally, on behalf of the Observatory on the Human Rights of Children, I thank you all for coming online to listen.
[i] To watch Professor Ann Skelton, Chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child’s lecture and Dr Rhian Croke’s Vote of thanks please access the video recording here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vgj9JArZjqY
[ii] Aspinwall T & Croke R, ‘Policy Advocacy Communities: the collective voice of children’s NGOs in Wales’, In, Williams J (eds) The UNCRC in Wales, (University of Wales Press Cardiff 2013)
[iii] Croke, R.; Dale, H.; Dunhill, A.; Roberts, A.; Unnithan, M.; Williams, J. Integrating Sustainable Development and Children’s Rights: A Case Study on Wales. Soc. Sci. 2021, 10, 100. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci10030100
[iv] Rhian Croke & Simon Hoffman (2023) A response to decentralised governance of human rights: a Children’s Rights Approach in Wales, The International Journal of Human Rights, DOI: 10.1080/13642987.2023.2236030