Responsibility for overseeing the convention and children's rights issues has been handed to children and families minister Sarah Teather. Under the previous government, it had been the responsibility of junior minister Baroness Morgan.
Sam Dimmock, head of policy and public affairs at the Children's Rights Alliance for England, said: "That responsibility for co-ordinating the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child lies with a senior minister is a welcome sign from the government that children's rights are being given priority.
"The government must now take the next step and publish its plans for implementing the recommendations made by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in its 2008 report on children's rights in the UK."
This report criticised the treatment of young people in the UK by government, the courts and the media. It said that children are prosecuted too young and wrongly treated as adults in court and prison. The use of anti-social behaviour orders and Mosquito devices against young people was also criticised.
Teather's other responsibilities include childcare, children's centres and child poverty.
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