Abandon plans for bill of rights, government urged
Nina Jacobs
Monday, April 25, 2022
A group of 30 children’s charities is calling on the government to scrap its plans to feature a controversial bill of rights in the upcoming Queen’s speech.
The coalition, led by the Children’s Rights Alliance for England and supported by organisations such as the National Children’s Bureau, Together and Children England, has written to the justice minister Dominic Raab asking for the proposed legislation to be shelved.
Raab sparked controversy last month after he outlined proposals to replace the Human Rights Act (HRA) with a British bill of rights which he said would enable the principle of free speech to become a legal “trump card”.
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But the group is warning the introduction of a bill of rights would significantly weaken children’s human rights and the ability of children to hold the government and public bodies to account in cases where their rights had been infringed.
Furthermore, the Human Rights Act has played a “crucial” role in protecting and promoting the rights of children, it adds.
We’re proud to stand with 29 other children’s charities in support of the #HumanRightsAct which provides important protections for some of our most vulnerable children. The UK Government must abandon its plans to replace it with a Bill of Rights. pic.twitter.com/mufvrzJTdw
— National Children's Bureau (@ncbtweets) April 22, 2022
A statement published by the coalition said since it had come into force, the act had provided important protections for some of the most vulnerable children, such as children in care, child witnesses, children in custody and refugee children.
“Importantly, for children who depend heavily on public services, section 6 of the HRA also places a duty on public bodies to comply with the human rights obligations contained within it, including the police and the youth secure estate, care institutions, courts, publicly funded schools and local authorities, it said.
Among its key concerns were specific proposals by the government which could create unnecessary barriers to children’s access to justice, complicating, delaying and adding costs to proceedings through introducing a "permission stage" at the start of a human rights legal case.
The UK Gov’s plans to replace the #HumanRightsAct with a Bill of Rights will significantly weaken important protections for some of our most vulnerable children.@DominicRaab must ensure the ability to hold the Gov and public bodies to account where rights have been infringed. https://t.co/ehDnqQtfoB
— Just for Kids Law (@Justforkidslaw) April 22, 2022
Further concerns related to a change in the definition of "public authorities" which could mean the HRA would not apply to private providers of public services.
“This is particularly crucial for the protection of children who live in institutions run by private providers, such as secure training centres and children’s homes,” the group warned.
It also wants to prevent plans for courts to overturn secondary legislation incompatible with children’s rights and the HRA.
Under the plans, courts would only be allowed to make a "declaration of incompatibility" given that secondary legislation covers regulations that can have a wide-ranging impact on many aspects of children’s lives such as welfare reform, the group added.
Louise King, director of the Children’s Rights Alliance for England, said it was crucial that children’s rights as set out in the HRA were not “diluted” in any way.
Supporting the plan to overturn the proposals, Juliet Harris, director of Together, the Scottish Alliance for Children’s Rights, said the HRA was a “powerful and essential mechanism” for upholding children’s rights.
“If progressed, these proposals would be deeply regressive, making it harder for children to enforce their rights and further undermining Scotland’s attempts to strengthen the protection of children’s rights in law,” she said.