by Cathy McCulloch, co-Founder and co-Director of Scotland’s Children’s Parliament
This is how Children’s Parliament introduces the new United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024 to children. While children quickly get their heads around talking about the ‘UNCRC’, I find it helps to talk about the human rights that are contained in the Convention as ‘promises’ that all adults now have to keep to make sure children and their families have what they need in order that children can thrive and flourish.
What is Incorporation and what will it mean?
The new Act becomes ‘live’ on 16 July 2024. It offers a built-in insurance policy, sitting as it does in the prevention and early intervention space. There are a few important messages we need shout about:
- We need to debunk the myth that ‘children’s rights means children get what they want and adults can’t enforce boundaries’. Boundaries are children’s security; children want adults to be ‘firm, fair and fun’. What we know is the best way to maintain boundaries is to put love, kindness and understanding at the heart of all we do – which is at the heart of much early years’ practice as well as at the heart of the UNCRC. During our Year of Childhood, Children’s Parliament worked with three early years settings and a number of practitioners and academics and produced a webpage on Rights-Based Early Years.
2. Realising children’s human rights begins with adults; adults need to know and understand what we mean when we talk about children’s human rights. Children’s Parliament’s Wee Book of Promises is a good place to start. Once adults know what’s expected of them, they can then think about what realising a child’s human rights looks like at home, in school and in our communities
3. From 16th July 2024, a child (and/or their representatives) will for the first time have the power to take a public body to court if their human rights are breached. Clearly this is a ‘big deal’. It sends a message to children – and adults – that fulfilling children’s basic human rights matters a great deal and that, if we don’t fulfil those rights, children – or adults acting on children’s behalf – can seek legal redress.
The UNCRC and Early Years
In terms of children in their earliest years, it’s really worth a read of the UNCRC. Article 3 talks about a child’s ‘best interests’. For Upstart supporters the UNCRC Act provides a framework for us to consider what is in a child’s best interests in terms of their care and education from birth to seven. This means considering where, when and how children ‘thrive and flourish’. Take a look at Children’s Parliament’s three wee films illustrating children’s rights in the early years: here, here and here!
Children living in poverty and/or experiencing trauma are clearly not having their human rights met. In terms of Upstart, children being forced into education settings with academic expectations that are not suited to their age and stage of development (e.g. with developmentally inappropriate targets for numeracy and literacy skills) are not having their human rights met either.
Upstart Chair, Willie French, a longstanding Primary School Head Teacher, spoke very powerfully at the recent Upstart General Election Hustings about the trauma we can unintentionally inflict on children by placing them in situations and environments that prevent their ability to thrive and flourish.
Nobody wants to have to take a pubic body to court. But few Scottish adults would argue that children aren’t entitled to rights that keep them safe, healthy and happy. Scotland now has an opportunity to use the UNCRC to inform and guide everything we do and how we do it.
Not just because it’s in our law, but because it’s morally the right thing to do.
For more information:
https://www.togetherscotland.org.uk/
https://www.improvementservice.org.uk/news/june-2024/are-you-uncrc-ready