• Home /
• Statewatch Database /
• Rights of children violated

Rights of children violated

01 March 1995

A UN committee monitoring observance of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which the UK signed in 1991 and which is ratified by 170 countries, has condemned the UK government for systematic and continuing violations of children's rights. It points in particular to the continuation of corporal punishment and the continuing legality of physical chastisement by parents and child-minders; the detention of children under 14; the high numbers of children living in poverty, begging and sleeping on the streets, in part because of changes in social security benefits; the treatment of child refugees; the health of poor and black children, and the lack of access to basic services for Gypsy and traveller children. It also expressed concern at the lack of any effective coordinating and/or monitoring mechanism to check the impact of new and proposed legislation on children. The report commented that children's rights should form part of the training of police, judges, social and health workers and detention centre staff.

Guardian, Independent, 28.1.95.