All children deserve protection from all forms of abuse or harm, in all aspects of their lives. Restraint is a human rights issue. Children have the right to feel safe.
They have a right to dignity, to bodily integrity, and to be protected from cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Restraint must only be used a last resort to prevent harm, using the minimum force, for the minimum time necessary. It must never be used to discipline or punish.
Prone restraint is unacceptable and must never been used on a child. Any use of physical restraint is traumatic and creates a risk of harm for the child and the staff member involved.
My office’s investigation in 2018 into restraint in schools heard from children who had been traumatised and even injured as a result of being restrained by an adult. We also found that disabled children were disproportionately likely to be restrained.
Places of education should be about nurturing children and developing them to their fullest potential. Children in distress need care and support, with a focus on communication and understanding their needs.
Children in the care system and disabled children are entitled to additional protections under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child so their care must be especially closely scrutinised.
Following the threat of judicial review by my office and the EHRC three years ago, the Scottish Government committed to national guidance on restraint and seclusion to both protect children and support staff.
Since then we have seen cross party commitment to incorporate the UNCRC, the publication of the Webster report into safeguarding and child protection failures in the Scottish Borders, and many further cases of restraint and seclusion.
Children’s rights must be protected in law, by ensuring the passage of the UNCRC Bill, and by placing the forthcoming restraint and seclusion guidance on a statutory footing.
Failure to ensure rights-respecting practice leaves children without the protection that they are entitled to, and the Scottish Government in breach of its human rights obligations.
https://lnkd.in/eK_QRfyM
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📢There is still time to apply!
We are looking for 2 Human Rights Officers to join us in Brussels and support our work on:
➡️The implementation of European #HumanRights conventions, #RuleOfLaw & #HumanRightsDefenders
➡️Building the capacity of #NHRIs including through peer exchange
Apply by 22 May (new deadline) 👉https://lnkd.in/e8ecMeHH
Excited to launch our new Rights Challenge Badge with Scouts Scotland🏴
The badge will empower 20,000 Cubs and Scouts across Scotland by learning about their human rights and how to challenge those in power when they're not upheld.
https://lnkd.in/ekWU_asu
#RightsBadge #UNCRC #Scouts
Children’s rights protections are in grave danger of being eroded by the UK Government’s retrogressive proposal in the #QueensSpeech.
The Human Rights Act's direct incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) into domestic law, with its duty on public authorities to act compatibly with the ECHR, has helped to mainstream human rights into policy and decision-making.
This must not be eroded. Children whose rights have been violated have been able to obtain a remedy in national courts. That domestic accountability and justiciability has been a driver for culture change.
The European Court of Human Rights has a vast body of jurisprudence on children’s rights. Judgments on respect for private & family life, prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment, right to liberty, and to a fair trial have been particularly useful in developing our understanding of those rights.
Important aspects of Scots law have been led and influenced by ECHR rights. Particularly where governments have been slow to act.
The direct incorporation model in the HRA takes the rights directly from the ECHR, and when things go wrong, it provides a remedy for rights breaches. This model protects minimum standards but also actively encourages governments to put in higher standards through other laws.
Moving away from this model in favour of the government making up its own interpretation of rights, separate from the agreements it has already made and the well-developed international infrastructure for interpreting those rights will invariably lead to retrogression.
One of the fundamental principles of the law of treaties is that governments will act in good faith. The proposal to expressly permit the UK to choose not to implement European Court of Human Rights decisions against it is particularly concerning.
In Scotland, children are still waiting for the Scottish Government to bring forward for reconsideration the bill to put their UNCRC rights into law. Now the UK Government’s proposals to reform the #HumanRightsAct risk stripping away the rights that are there.
See our article published earlier this week in Children in Scotland’s Insight Magazine:
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We're recruiting! We are looking for a Executive Assistant on a temporary basis of 6 months. You’ll be valued as an essential part of a busy team, working every day to make an impact in children and young people’s lives in Scotland. Details below👇👇👇
bit.ly/3GcN8P4
Amazing opportunity: The Scottish Parliament is recruiting three new Commissioners for the Scottish Human Rights Commission. 48 days per year.
https://lnkd.in/dxxtVkxp
![Watchdog: Inquiry delay at care crisis council left children at risk of abuse]()
https://www.sundaypost.com
![Children's commissioner: We must tell our young people to stand tall, be brave, think big, believe]()
https://www.sundaypost.com
18 years ago today, Prof Kathleen Marshall, the first Children and Young People’s Commissioner started! We’ve championed children’s human rights for the equivalent of an entire childhood, but we still have much more to do.
https://t.co/uEpON15dcI
Created by the Scottish Parliament, founded on United Nations
principles. Independent from government, with legal authority to hold those in power to account.
From Day 1, Kathleen fought to give children’s rights and voices a place in the heart of law, policy, and practice.
We empower children to claim their rights. Children in Scotland have always played an important role in communities and have now helped develop new international standards on the need for education about rights, and protection for children when they act to defend their rights.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) is at the heart of our work. It proclaims children’s status as human beings with a distinct set of rights like the right to an adequate standard of living, the highest attainable standard of health, and education. UNCRC says children should grow up in a family environment of happiness, love, and understanding. They have the right to be heard and to have decisions made in their best interests. We must use all available resources to fulfil children’s rights.
https://t.co/qgPN8Wg428
As part of UNCRC 30th anniversary in 2019 we asked children to describe human rights in 7 Word Stories. They said things like:
“My rights give me power, freedom, courage”
“Rights matter. You matter. Don’t lose hope”
“My rights are my armour to me”
https://t.co/XVgFnImYSL
Incorporating the UNCRC into Scots law is the most important thing we can do to protect children’s rights. It will improve the lives of all children, but especially those whose rights are most at risk.
https://t.co/jqvRJuKgkP
A year ago the Scottish Parliament unanimously voted to incorporate UNCRC. However, the UK Supreme Court decided changes were needed. We are still waiting to hear how the Scottish Government will make these changes. Children are still waiting to have their rights protected in Scots law.
Of the 18 years, the last two have been toughest. Covid has been a human rights crisis affecting all children & disproportionally affecting children whose rights were already most at risk. More children are in poverty & needing mental health support.
https://t.co/ePI2qGi0B7
The world is changing. Climate justice is now an office priority, digital technology brings opportunities and challenges.
As the office embarks on its adulthood, we will take the advice of one child whose 7 Word Story was:
“Stand tall. Be brave. Think big. Believe.”
![It's our 18th Birthday!]()
My thoughts on the eve of the 18th birthday of the Office of the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland:
Scotland must turn its rhetoric on human rights into real, sustained change for children. The pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine have highlighted just how fragile human rights protections can be. Young human rights defenders are calling out our failures to take a rights-based approach to climate change and to address poverty, or the mental health crisis facing children and young people. Scotland’s low age of criminal responsibility and the continuing detention of children in prisons paints a bleak picture of our commitment to children’s rights. We can do so much better.
Putting rights into law is the best way to live up to our promises to children – to create that family environment of happiness, love and understanding that we committed to in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). It’s been over a year since the Scottish Parliament unanimously passed the law to incorporate the UNCRC, but after the UK Supreme Court asked for amendments, progress has stalled. There’s been a concerning lack of urgency from the Scottish Government. Six months of silence. Every day of delay is another day that children’s rights aren’t protected.
Rights shouldn’t be ignored or delayed in times of crisis, and our recovery from the pandemic must be rights-based. Incorporation means it’ll no longer be good enough to simply pay lip service to children’s rights; they will be fundamental when it comes to policies, legislation and budgets. And there will be much-needed accountability for public bodies who fail to respect, protect and fulfil children’s rights.
Put simply, Scotland’s children need incorporation, and they need it now.
https://lnkd.in/g7ukDrJb
