Over the past two decades, children's rights on these shores have acquired wider articulation in policy. Children are now consulted on policies that affect them. England has a children's rights director and the four nations each have a children's commissioner (albeit England's alone lacks the power to take up cases on behalf of children). England itself has one of the most advanced systems of children's rights and advocacy services in the world.
However, beyond the rhetoric and infrastructure, our record on children's rights is poor and in some cases worsening. For example, too many looked-after children still have multiple, short-term placements, and many are denied vital contact with siblings. Children of asylum seekers are taken out of school and detained indefinitely. Children who misbehave are criminalised through Asbos, curfews and naming and shaming campaigns and young people are demonised in the press and lampooned in the wider media. There were hardly any 15-year-olds in custody 20 years ago; now there are hundreds. This is not progress by any measure.
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