Charities criticise government’s lack of progress on children’s rights

A report by a coalition of over 100 children’s charities has found the government has failed to make progress on 80 per cent of the recommendations on children’s rights made by the UN four years ago.

In its annual report, the Children’s Rights Alliance criticised the government for failing to make “significant progress” on 66 of the 78 recommendations made by the UN Committee of the Rights of the Child in 2002.

The report, The State of Children’s Rights in England, highlighted conditions for children in custody and asylum seeking children as areas of particular concern, and said that it was investigating whether restraint techniques used in four privately run secure training centres were legal.

The government is due to report on its progress on children’s rights to the UN by next summer. But Carolyn Willow, national co-ordinator of the alliance, said unless substantial changes were made by then, it expected the government to be severely criticised for its approach.