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Cynulliad Cenedlaethol Cymru
Addysg Ymateb gan: Plant yng Nghymru ___________________________________
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National Assembly for Wales Inquiry into Children’s rights in Wales CRW 13 Response from: Children in Wales ______________________________________ |
Introduction
Children in Wales is the national umbrella organisation in Wales for children and young people’s issues, bringing organisations and individuals from all disciplines and sectors together. One of our core aims is to make the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) a reality in Wales. Children in Wales campaigns for sustainable quality services for all children and young people, with special attention for children in need and works to ensure children and young people have a voice in issues that affect them.
For further information on the work of Children in Wales, please see www.childreninwales.org.uk and www.youngwales.wales
Children in Wales works closely with its member organisations and has an established number of national professional forums and networks. This provides an opportunity for our broad range of members to focus on thematic priorities with a view to maximizing capacity and impact across the sector and to coproduce agreed positions in relation to policy.
In 2002, Children in Wales worked with partners to establish the Wales UNCRC Monitoring Group and contributed to the first civil society organisations report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child to inform their scrutiny of UK and devolved governments. We have worked with partners on successive reports (2008, 2016) and have been involved in supporting the realisation of children’s rights in Wales through informing legislation, policy and UN scrutiny processes; delivering programmes of training to the workforce and promoting knowledge & awareness of the UNCRC with professionals and young people in Wales, and with partners across the UK and Europe through our membership of Eurochild.
Since 2016, we have provided coordination and facilitation functions for the Wales UNCRC Monitoring Group, and have led on the development of a number of submissions to National Assembly Committee inquiries, Welsh Government consultations and UN reporting processes.
Our response
Children in Wales have led on the development of the response from the Wales Monitoring Group to this Committee’s inquiry into children’s rights and have submitted a detailed response for, and with input from member organisations of this national alliance.
We would therefore wish to draw the Committee’s attention to that submission and support the content and recommendations within.
We would also wish to draw attention to the Equality and Human Rights Commissioned report ‘The Impact of Legal Integration of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in Wales’ which was published in 2018 by Dr. Simon Hoffman from Swansea Law School with our Policy Director Sean O’Neill. Available here - http://www.childreninwales.org.uk/resource/impact-legal-integration-un-convention-rights-child-wales/
Our submission with the Wales UNCRC Monitoring Group is in agreement that the Rights of Children and Young Persons (Wales) Measure 2011 which came into full effect in May 2014, requiring Welsh Ministers to have due regard to the UNCRC when carrying out any of their functions is a significant piece of legislation which must be utilised to its full effect and fully protected. However, there is now an opportunity, through this Committee’s inquiry to take stock, acknowledge the good progress which has been made to date, and to help identify where this progress may be strengthened, to give further effect to progressing the realisation of the rights of children and young people in Wales.
September 2019