CYP Now - Using the law to uphold vulnerable children’s rights and entitlements

It is 40 years since Coram Children’s Legal Centre published Locked Up in Care, its first major report. It has championed the rights of marginalised groups of children and is still holding policymakers to account.

At a time of funding constraints for legal aid, pressures on courts and local authorities mean that there are children and young people facing protracted periods of uncertainty. Picture: Chris Dorney/Adobe Stock

For 40 years, Coram Children’s Legal Centre (CCLC) has championed the rights of children and young people, supporting them to access justice and strengthening the legal framework.

Working with colleagues across the sector, the realisation of children’s rights is our continuing and driving ambition.

The story began in 1979, which, as a follow-up to the Declaration of the Rights of the Child in 1959, was designated by UNESCO as the International Year of the Child in order to raise the profile of the specific challenges faced by children in areas such as education, health and poverty.

The Children’s Legal Centre was the resultant UK project, established in 1981 with the purpose of promoting the rights of the child, and part of the movement that ultimately led to the UK becoming a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) a decade later.

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