This page contains information about our legal networks - Strategic Litigation for the Rights of Children (SLRC) and Lawyers for Children's Rights (LCR).  Scroll down to the bottom of the page to find out how you can join the networks.

Strategic Litigation for the Rights of Children (SLRC) network

SLRC is a professional network whose purpose is to promote the use of strategic litigation to increase the realisation of children’s rights in England.

Policy experts and lawyers in private practice and NGOs have complementary areas of work and expertise and often have common strategic aims.  Through the network, we aim to bring professionals together to help generate strategic litigation projects that can achieve change for children. 

The network has proved a popular resource for lawyers and other professionals since its re-launch in 2008, helping members to form new working relationships, share ideas and spread the word about children’s rights violations as well as positive legal developments.  In the coming year, we seek to refocus the SLRC network’s activities to make sure we are really making a difference for children, and to ensure the network’s sustainability as a vibrant forum and resource for lawyers and others with an interest in strategic litigation to achieve change for children.

SLRC network members

Organisations

11 Million, the Advisory Centre for Education, the AIRE Centre, the Association of Lawyers for Children, Asylum Support and Immigration Resource Team (ASIRT), Baby Milk Action, Bail for Immigration Detainees, Bindmans LLP, the British Humanist Association, the British Institute of Human Rights (BIHR), the Children's Legal Centre, the Child Rights Information Network (CRIN), the Children's Rights Alliance for England (CRAE), Children's Rights Officers and Advocates (CROA), Every Disabled Child Matters, Fair Play for Children, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, Full Time Mothers, the Howard League for Penal Reform, INQUEST, Just for Kids Law, JUSTICE, the Law Centres Federation, Liberty, Maxwell Gillott solicitors, the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, the National Autistic Society, the National Youth Advocacy Service, NCB, the NSPCC, Pierce Glynn solicitors, the Prison Reform Trust, the Public Law Project, the Refugee Children's Consortium, Scope, Shelter Children's Legal Service, The Children's Society, Voice and Youth Access.

Individuals

Naomi Angell, Noel Arnold, Jenny Boswell, Stephen Broach, Clare Collier, Ceri Davies, Sandhya Drew, Violet During, Anna Edmundson, Nadine Finch, Jane Fortin, Afshaan Hena, Lynne Hill, Rachel Hodgkin, Kathryn Hollingsworth, Sue King, Rachel Knowles, Nick Lessof, Peter Newell, Camilla Parker, Adam Porte, Nikhil Roy, Adam Sandell, Emmanuel Sherwin, Justina Stewart, Rebekah Wilson and David Wolfe.

SLRC aims for the coming year

In the coming year, we aim to:

• Refocus the network’s activities to increase its effectiveness as a vibrant forum and catalyst to increase the amount and effectiveness of strategic litigation undertaken or supported by CRAE members
• Integrate the life of the SLRC network into CRAE’s wider children’s rights work
• Develop and expand the services provided by CRAE to SLRC network members, including by integrating SLRC members into the CRAE membership
• Achieve greater interaction between SLRC members (network ‘takes on a life of its own’)
• Actively encourage lawyers to routinely use the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in their casework for children
• Raise awareness among children and young people, their families and the wider public, of the different ways children’s rights violations can be challenged using the law

• Capture and publicise the outcomes for children arising from network activities

SLRC core activities for the coming year

We have a range of activities planned to achieve the above aims.  Some of our plans are dependent on the outcome of funding applications which should be decided by the Autumn.  In the meantime, we plan to carry out the following core activities using our existing resources and drawing on the expertise of network members:

• Circulate the network membership list (including individual contact details and areas of specialism) to members every 6 weeks
• Hold CPD-registered seminars twice-yearly, with expert speakers on relevant themes, including opportunities for members to share information and meet informally over refreshments (next seminar to be held in Autumn 2010 – details to be announced later in the summer)
• SLRC seminars will continue to be free for SLRC network members, but we plan to introduce a £10 charge for non-members. 
• Circulate quarterly case notes from our You’ve got the Right legal advice service, drawing out themes of strategic relevance and inviting email discussion among members
• Work with SLRC members to produce accessible online information for children and young people, their families and the wider public, on the different ways children’s human rights violations can be challenged through legal action 
• Involve SLRC members in the analysis of children’s human rights violations that is undertaken annually by CRAE’s policy team with other child policy experts, and integrate the outcomes into the yearly SLRC programme of activities 

• Network steering group to meet twice-yearly to discuss strategic direction (next meeting date to be circulated shortly).  We will consult with the steering group about the detailed implementation of these plans 

Lawyers for Children’s Rights (LCR) network

Earlier in the year, we launched a new Lawyers for Children’s Rights (LCR) network as part of our 2010 You’ve got the Right programme. 

The purpose of this new national network is to enable us to identify practising lawyers around the country, with a range of relevant specialisms, that are willing and able to act for children who contact our national advice service.  LCR network members will also be invited to participate in CRAE children’s rights training sessions in their local area.   

We will shortly be writing to all existing SLRC members who are practising lawyers, to confirm that you have already been automatically added to this network list and invite you to let us know if you do not want to take part.

Eventually, if there is sufficient take-up, we aim to make LCR network information a publicly available resource to help facilitate children’s access to legal services.

For more information about the LCR network, contact Sabeena Kistnah

Joining CRAE's legal networks

Join our legal networks: Show your support for our legal networks by becoming a member!  Membership is free of charge and will give you access to details of all members' areas of interest and expertise, and individual contact details, as well as advance booking privileges for our events.  By joining you will also help strengthen the network's sustainability, including fundraising for future events and activities.

It is now a requirement to join CRAE before you can become a member of our legal networks.  Many SLRC members are already members of CRAE.  For those who are not, we are asking that you to apply to join CRAE by Friday 15 October 2010 in order to retain SLRC network membership.  From now until 15 October, SLRC members will receive CRAE’s 6-weekly members’ bulletin free of charge. 

CRAE member organisations can join our legal networks as organisations and name an unlimited number of individuals to be listed as SLRC and/or LCR contacts.  Individual CRAE members will be entitled to individual network membership.

You can find out more about becoming a CRAE member here 

To join CRAE's legal networks download CRAE's legal network form and return it to Sabeena Kistnah

Forthcoming SLRC events

Our next SLRC seminar will be held in the Autumn.  Details will be posted here in due course.