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elliemunro - My Blog
elliemunro - My Blog


"Tough on Crime, Tough on the Causes of Crime"
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Thirty children have died in custody in the UK since 1990. There has never been an enquiry into any of them.

This struck me as particularly poignant in light of the recent focus on youth crime, in particular knife crime. Hardly a day seems to pass without a story about some teenage “yob” having stabbed another young person, of gangs roaming the streets, threatening violence. The government seem desperate, and the public afraid.

But does this really reflect the reality of Britain today?

In 2005/06 301, 860 offences were committed by under-18s. The most common crime was theft and handling. This represented a fall from previous years in crimes committed. And yet convictions rose by 26%. 2,900 young people have been locked up in the past year alone. Children as young as 10 are deemed criminally responsible, an age declared unacceptable internationally.

As Y Care International's Youth Justice in Action report puts it, efforts at rehabilitation or keeping young people out of the criminal justice system are often represented as being “soft on crime”. The results of taking the “hard” approach are appalling. 792 child protection referrals involving children in custody in the past two years. 677 recorded instances of self-harm in 11 months. 8 major injuries in 6 months caused by the use of restraint methods. A young boy choking to death on his own vomit as a result of being restrained, after refusing to clean a sandwich toaster. Why are these stories not in the papers?

http://www.youthjusticeinaction.org/youthjustice

August 26, 2008 | 6:21 AM Comments  0 comments

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Reporting to the Committee on the Rights of the Child
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

“The key to understanding the Children's Rights Convention is to know, accept and internalise that a child is an independent human being, with subjective rights, and with the same entitlement to dignity and respect to personal integrity.” This is a quote from Professor Lucy Smith, one of the people responsible for looking at how well the UK is doing in terms of children's rights.

So do we accept children as independent human beings? Do we afford them the dignity they are entitled to? According to many, the answer is a definite no.

I live in a country where young people are criminalised for meeting in groups and hanging around, that uses dispersal orders and Mosquito devices to chase them away. Where 71% of media stories about young people are negative. Where it is legal to hit a child, but not a dog.

The government are to be inspected this autumn, and these issues will surely be commented upon. The Children's Rights Alliance for England has already made 152 recommendations, at least 100 of which are urgent, to avoid severe criticism from the Committee on the Rights of the Child.

Many of these recommendations are things that could be done now by the government, and would send out a clear message that we are a country that respects its children and young people. What would your priorities be? Do you take a rights-based approach in your own work? What can or do you do to make sure children's rights are respected?

June 25, 2008 | 5:54 AM Comments  0 comments





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