Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps the Government is taking to uphold the commitment it made at the 9th Commonwealth Youth Ministers Meeting outlined in point 1 of the Final Communiqué to protect and strengthen the rights of all young people, as set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The government is committed to children’s rights. The ‘Rights of the Child’ continues to underpin associated Government policy and legislation across Whitehall, the Devolved Administrations and those Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories that have ratified the Convention. The UK has reaffirmed its commitment to give the Articles set out in the UNCRC due consideration.

During the passage of the Children and Social Work Act, the previous Children’s Minister re-iterated that our commitment to the UNCRC is already reflected in legislation. For example, the Children Act 1989 and 2004 set out a range of duties to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, while in 2013 we issued statutory guidance to Directors of Children’s Services requiring them to have regard to the general principles of the UNCRC to ensure that children and young people are involved in the development and delivery of local services.

The Children and Social Work Act is a further example of how we constantly seek not only to protect children’s rights, but enhance them.

In October 2016, we responded to the United Nations’ concluding recommendations through a Written Ministerial Statement (HLWS197) and a letter from the permanent secretary to his counterparts across government. We are determined to see this through with a framework of actions designed to raise the profile of children’s rights, and embed them across Whitehall and beyond.