NEW child-friendly resource on the UN Concluding Observations

Date: 30th October 2023
Category: Reporting to and monitoring the UNCRC, General measures of implementation, Civil Rights and Freedoms, UNCRC Optional Protocols and General Comments
Author: Together

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Together has just launched a child-friendly resource explaining the recent UN Concluding Observations made by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child for the UK and Scottish Government. In partnership with Children’s Parliament, Scottish Youth Parliament and Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland, Together consulted with #TeamScotlandUN in the creation of this child-friendly resource to explain to children and young people these important recommendations for the UK and devolved goverments, to better protect, respect and implement children’s rights and to support their ability to hold Scottish Government and other duty bearers to account. Together would like to send a huge “thank you” to the children and young people who provided us with valuable advice and feedback to help shape the resource.

 

The UN Committee issued almost 200 recommendations to the UK and Scottish Government in June, known as ‘concluding observations’. This is after #TeamScotlandUN, a group of children and young people from Scotland supported by Together, Scottish Youth Parliament, Children’s Parliament and CYPCS, travelled to Geneva to give evidence about the state of children’s rights ahead of the review. The resulting recommendations effectively form a ‘to-do-list’ of key things the Scottish Government and others should be doing to uphold children’s rights. The recommendations included a call on Scottish Government to ‘expeditiously’ bring forward the amendments needed to bring the UNCRC Bill into effect.

 

In this new resource, Together’s Rights Express Train takes children and young people on a journey through Scotland's ‘to do’ list to get children's #RightsOnTrack. The resource hopes to support children and young people to learn more about their rights and what the Scottish Government should be doing to protect their rights. We hope this resource will be a helpful tool to support children’s ability to hold Scottish Government and other duty bearers to account, so please share it amongst all the children and young people you know or work with.

• Find the resource here.

If you would like to share children and young people’s feedback on the resource then please send this by email to Judi Martin, Policy Assistant, judi@togetherscotland.org.uk