As the country waits to hear the final outcome of the General Election, the Children’s Rights Alliance for England is selecting its shortlist of urgent children’s rights matters to bring to the attention of Government Ministers.

In October 2008, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child examined the UK’s record on children’s rights for the third time. The UN body of children’s rights experts repeated many of the criticisms of its previous reviews, in 1995 and 2002, including the UK’s failure to make the Convention on the Rights of the Child part of UK law; inadequate protection for children from all forms of violence; high levels of child poverty and inequality; inconsistent progress in ensuring children are listened to and taken seriously, including in schools; and extensive rights violations in the criminal justice and immigration systems. When the UK ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child with cross-party support in 1991 it took on legal obligations under international law. The UK’s record on meeting the legal obligations in the Convention’s Optional Protocol on armed conflict was also criticised. Over 150 recommendations in all were made by the UN Committee in 2008.

CRAE has been pushing for a vast number of legal and policy reforms since the UN examination in 2008. Once the outcome of the election is known, we will do all we can to effectively lobby Ministers to bring about the urgent changes necessary to ensure every child in England enjoys the best possible childhood.