Commencement of New Ministerial Child Rights Duties

Date: 15th June 2015
Category: Scotland-specific monitoring and reporting

Duties on Scottish Ministers around the rights of children and young people came into force on Monday 15 June 2015.

The Part 1 Duties under the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 (as outlined below) take account of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in Scotland.

The new duties, as outlined in Section 1 of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014, require Ministers to:

• "Keep under consideration" the rights contained in the UNCRC as to whether there are any steps they could take to give better effect to the UNCRC rights in Scotland, and to take such steps if they consider it appropriate;
• Promote awareness and understanding of the UNCRC;
• Report on the progress they have made towards realisation of the rights contained in the UNCRC every three years.

Ministers have agreed that Child Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessments (CRWIA) will be undertaken across all government departments, in relation to proposed new policies and legislation affecting children.

Together continues to work with the Scottish Government to ensure that the duties in Part 1 of the 2014 Act will be effectively implemented. This will help to fulfil the government's ambition to 'makes rights real' for every child and support the obligations upon the government to further children's rights under the UNCRC.

• Find out more about CRWIA here.
• Find out more about the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 here.