England programme: Children's rights
We're lobbying government to ensure children's rights are respected
We work with others to monitor the UK government's observance of the UNCRC. Countries have to produce a report every five years on their progress on meeting the UNCRC provisions.
We were a member of the consortium that the UK government contracted to consult with children and young people on their views about education, physical punishment, poverty and other issues that affect them. The government will include these views in the report it will submit in 2008 - the first time this has happened.
Under the Convention, states should give refugee children special protection and assistance. But the UK has reserved the right to exclude children subject to immigration control from the Convention's provisions.
We are campaigning for the government to withdraw this reservation.
We're calling for all smacking to be banned
We believe that smacking children is a breach of their fundamental human rights. We should protect children from physical assault in the same way that we protect adults. The 2004 Children Act did introduce a partial change in the law, but hitting children can still be justified as 'reasonable chastisement'. We are campaigning for further legislation to change this. Meanwhile, we've produced videos and training materials to help parents and childminders find non-violent alternatives to smacking.
