This new book The Impact of Devolution in Wales: Social Democracy with a Welsh Stripe? co-edited by Professor Jane Williams and Dr Aled Eirug, which includes a chapter on children’s rights, offers some insight into that question.
The edited collection reflects on two decades of Welsh devolution and contributes to debates about its significance and future course. It draws on interviews undertaken by the late Professor Michael Sullivan with key protagonists in the story, with special reference to the political legacy of the late Rt Hon Rhodri Morgan, First Minister of Wales 2000 – 2010, who encouraged the making of Wales’ ground-breaking approach to bringing the UNCRC into our law in the Rights of Children and Young Persons (Wales) Measure 2011.
With expert analysis from leading researchers in different disciplines and fields of policy, the book concludes by agreeing with Professor Sullivan’s suggestion that what has emerged in Wales is a distinctive brand of ‘social democracy with a Welsh stripe’.
The UNCRC is part of that distinctive brand. Current First Minister of Wales Mark Drakeford is quoted in the book as saying that children’s rights are a ‘thread’ connecting all five administrations since devolution started in 1999. Crucially, Wales has been able to use the international law on the rights of the child – the UNCRC, effectively, the book argues, ‘a social justice charter for children’ – as a framework for policy and law-making. In doing this, Wales demonstrates the ways in which a country or region within a ‘State Party’ can make significant progress towards implementation of the UNCRC, even if action at the State Party level is slower.
Progress has not, however, been linear and the story of children’s rights in Wales is far from complete. The concept of children as citizens and rights holders has attracted broad consensus in Wales, sometimes strikingly so, yet it is only one thread in a tapestry of ideas and priorities, sometimes more and sometimes less prominent.
For those who enjoy the longer view and bigger picture, this volume is an opportunity to think about children’s rights in the context of the progression of Welsh devolution, past, present and future.
The Impact of Devolution in Wales: Social Democracy with a Welsh Stripe? edited by Jane Williams and Aled Eirug is published by University of Wales Press Book | UWP