A report from the Children's Rights Alliance for England (CRAE) today (7 December) accuses the coalition Government of systematically breaching international law that protects children's rights. Ministers are flouting The Ministerial Code which requires them to act in accordance with international law and their treaty obligations. 

Carolyne Willow, CRAE's national co-ordinator, says:

The detailed evidence we have brought together is truly shocking for a country that first started to legislate to protect children over 100 years ago. It is simply unacceptable that 47 children last year died from deliberately inflicted abuse and neglect; that millions of children continue to live in poverty in our still rich country; that thousands of children each year are subject to appalling sexual crimes; and children's dignity and safety are being jeopardised by brutal restraint practices in prison. This is not where we should be twenty years after ratifying a children's rights treaty heralded as the Children's Magna Carta. The absence of a national plan of action, and resistance to a Children's Rights Act, is both shameful and perplexing: what is stopping our country taking the lead in children's rights? 

The Convention on the Rights of the Child is one of the most comprehensive human rights treaties agreed by the UN. It entitles children to family support, protection from all forms of violence and exploitation, and to an adequate standard of living and health care. Children's best interests are given priority and they must be heard and taken seriously in all matters affecting them. The arrest and imprisonment of children must be a last resort; and the treaty gives children who have been abused or mistreated the right to support and services which can foster their self-respect and dignity.

Carolyne Willow adds:

Ever since the UK ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, successive governments have proclaimed their commitment to it. The coalition Government even promised last year to put the treaty at the centre of law and policy affecting children. Yet the reality is that children up and down the country are being failed by a government that has barely begun to recognise, let alone address, the scale of rights violations suffered by them.

Many other countries have made the Convention on the Rights of the Child part of their domestic law to ensure children's rights are adequately protected. There is currently only one small reference to the Convention in English law, relating to the Children's Commissioner.

When the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child last examined the UK's compliance with international children's rights law, it made 118 recommendations.

CRAE's latest review shows the coalition Government has:

• Only made progress in 18 of 118 recommendations in the past 12 months
• Presided over a deterioration in 15 recommendations
• Risked further violations occurring in 10 areas of concern raised by the UN
• Made no significant progress in 59 areas of children's rights protection.

Download the report here.