Children's rights to be at centre of law-making

Wednesday 18 October 2023

A new law that would make States members consider children's rights in all of their decisions is likely to be approved, according to the politician working on it.

The law would involve young people's voices "early in the process", Assistant Minister for Children and Education Louise Doublet said.

"I would hope it becomes part of a culture change," she added.

If it is passed, the law will require all elected Members as well as States Assembly bodies to take children's rights into account when making decisions. 

The law follows on from the Care Inquiry, which found fundamental failings in the care system allowing for widespread abuse.

In its wake, then-backbencher Deputy Doublet lodged a proposition for States Members to have to take into account the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child when making decisions.

In most cases, this means including a Child Rights Impact Assessment (CRIA).

CRIAs have been used in the past, for example by the Breastfeeding Steering Group, which Deputy Doublet chaired.

Pictured: Deputy Louise Doublet, who worked on the law on behalf of Children's and Education Minister Inna Gardiner.

Lodging the law in the form of a Commencement Act allows States Members to set a date when the law will come into effect, in this case on 1 January 2024.

Deputy Doublet said she was "certain that the Commencement Act will be approved because children's rights are important to the Assembly and backbenchers".

Asked whether the process would introduce more paperwork to the decision-making process, Deputy Doublet said: "Doing that little bit of extra work is, I think, absolutely worth it for the children."

Dragan Nastic, Unicef UK’s Strategic Lead on the Convention of the Rights of the Child – whose remit includes Jersey – said it was essential to raise awareness of provisions like this, "in the public sector, but the general public as well, that children are rights holders and that they should be treated as such".

He added that when similar legislation was introduced in Norway, even the process of passing the proposition "had a positive impact in terms of raising awareness in general and especially with the rights holders".

He added that although Jersey has achieved "a lot" since joining the UN Convention for the Rights of the Child in 2014, "it's a never-ending story".

He praised the island's corporal punishment ban and the Rights Respecting Schools initiative, which all States-run schools have signed up to.

Living conditions and healthcare in particular are constantly in need of improvement, he said.