Today, the Children’s Rights Alliance for England (CRAE) launches a consultation with its members – including children – to find out which laws they can’t wait to remove to benefit children and young people, and which laws they’d like to see put in place to reinstate lost rights.
 
Sam Dimmock, Head of Policy and Public Affairs, said of the consultation: ‘Children have been among the biggest losers in the erosion of civil liberties over recent years, and very little action has been taken to halt this. It is crucial that children’s rights advocates – including children themselves – come together to ensure the Freedom Bill strengthens the rights of children in UK law and protects the civil liberties of the most vulnerable in our society. Giving our members the opportunity to tell us what laws they want to bin to protect children’s rights will help us ensure that the Freedom Bill benefits people of all ages’.
 
As well as covering key concerns such as the retention of children’s data on the National DNA database and the proliferation of low-level offences, CRAE’s survey considers other provisions that have negatively affected children’s civil liberties, including the disproportionate use of anti-social behaviour measures against children, fines for parents of under-10s, the use of custody for breaching an ASBO, the retention of the parental right to hit children, laws allowing schools to search children without consent, house arrest for excluded school students, different minimum wage levels based on age, and legislation that allows disabled children to be kept out of mainstream education to protect the “efficient education” of others.
 
A call will also go out to CRAE’s young activists to take up the Deputy Prime Minister’s challenge to have their say and be insistent about their rights by providing evidence about where they feel their civil liberties are endangered or where their rights are being violated. Children’s evidence, along with suggestions from CRAE members, will drive our work on the Freedom Bill in the autumn.
 
CRAE’s consultation will run until 8 August 2010. Click here to take part in the survey.