Doing right by children

Date: 1st June 2011
Category: Family Environment and Alternative Care, General measures of implementation
Author: Children’s Rights Alliance for England

The publication makes the case for a consistent rights-based approach to all law, policy and practice affecting children, and explores in depth the implications of a children's rights approach to the family and to juvenile justice. It discusses the values and attitudes underpinning a children's rights framework and reports on good practice in a variety of settings.

The publication's key messages:.

• A children's rights approach is the surest way of meeting children's needs and transforming their social and political status
• In moving towards the twentieth anniversary of the UK's ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (December 2011), Government must mainstream children's rights: making sure it underpins all decisions and actions affecting children
• Children's rights, experiences and perspectives must not be lost in the increasing policy focus on the family
• We need a completely different approach to juvenile justice, with an outright rejection of retribution and punishment and an end to the criminalisation of children.

• Download the publication here.