{"id":1506,"date":"2023-11-20T14:01:03","date_gmt":"2023-11-20T14:01:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/participation\/?p=1506"},"modified":"2023-11-20T14:54:05","modified_gmt":"2023-11-20T14:54:05","slug":"happy-world-childrens-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/participation\/2023\/11\/20\/happy-world-childrens-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy World Children’s Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ms<\/a>To mark World Children\u2019s Day 2023 we invited young people from the Scottish Youth Parliament to ask Ms Don, the Minister for Children and Young People and Keeping the Promise, their questions about the work to embed children\u2019s rights into Scots law. Here\u2019s what she said\u2026\u2026.<\/p>\n

On World Children\u2019s Day, can you give children and young people an update on the UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill\u2019s progress, and what the next steps are?<\/h3>\n

Firstly, Happy World Children\u2019s Day 2023! Thank you for continuing to champion children\u2019s rights, including the role that children and young people from Scotland played when the UK was examined by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva this year.<\/p>\n

This day is important as it allows us to celebrate children\u2019s ability to change the world.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re at an exciting time with the UNCRC Bill. The amendments to the Bill to address the Supreme Court judgment were published in September. The Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee have recently finished looking at these and hearing what other people think about them, including children and young people who prepared two great videos for the Committee. Thank you to Together’s Human Rights Detectives alongside members of the Children’s Parliament, Scottish Youth Parliament and the Children and Young People Commissioner Scotland’s Young Advisors for this evidence. You were clear, informed, and outlined what the children and young people of Scotland want from your Government.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re hopeful that the Bill can now be considered by all MSPs in Parliament before the end of the year so that they can decide whether to accept the amendments and pass the Bill.<\/p>\n

When implemented, how will this bill change the everyday lives of children and young people in Scotland?<\/h3>\n

When the amendments were published, the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice wrote an open letter<\/a> to the children and young people explaining what the amendments mean.<\/p>\n

As you know the UNCRC Bill was passed by all of the Scottish Parliament in 2021 but couldn\u2019t receive Royal Assent due to a challenge to the Supreme Court by the UK Law Officers.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court judgment focused on whether the Scottish Parliament had the power to make the laws it wanted to in the Bill. It wasn\u2019t critical about our ambitions for children\u2019s rights. The Supreme Court judgment required us to amend parts of the original Bill to make the Bill work under the powers of the Scottish Parliament.<\/p>\n

Our fix to the Bill means that the new ability to use the courts to enforce your rights will be available only when you experience a rights issue when you receive a service provided under a law passed by the Scottish Parliament. We tried very hard to find a way to also make it apply when you receive a service under a law passed by the UK Parliament that related to things that the Scottish Parliament can normally make laws about. However, the only way we could do this would make the legislation too difficult to understand and it might have meant that the Bill couldn\u2019t become law.<\/p>\n

The amendments to the Bill have resulted in less coverage for your rights than we originally hoped to achieve.\u00a0 It also means that the duties will not be as straightforward to understand as we had hoped. However, it\u2019s really important to point out that the Bill will provide extra legal protection for your rights that is not currently available in Scotland, or in any other part of the UK. It\u2019s also important to emphasise that, regardless of whether the legal compatibility duty applies, if children and young people have a worry about their rights, they should still talk to someone they trust about it so that those concerns can be addressed.<\/p>\n

With this version of the bill having less coverage than the original in its protections of the UNCRC, what other measures are you taking to ensure our rights are properly upheld?<\/h3>\n

The Bill supports our vision of a country where children grow up loved, safe and respected so that you realise your full potential and where we all respect, protect and fulfil human rights and live free from discrimination.<\/p>\n

I watched the evidence<\/a> provided by organisations to the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee on Halloween. The best part was the suggestion made by children and young people that the UNCRC Bill was like a spiders web. They suggested the original UNCRC Bill was like a complete web that catches all the flies \u2013 or rights breaches. They then said the new version was a looser web that doesn\u2019t catch everything, but the fact it is there will help scare other flies away.\u00a0 The Bill, just like the looser web, might have some gaps but it will still help prevent rights breaches from arising in the first place and some of the gaps could be filled in over time by passing laws by the Scottish Parliament rather than relying on old laws passed by the UK Parliament.<\/p>\n

In addition to the web, there are other actions that we are taking now that will help to create a change in attitude over time so that you feel more empowered to claim your rights and the adults around you support you to do that:<\/p>\n