Research launch: Access to Justice for Babies and Young Children Across 12 Jurisdictions Report

Date: 22nd July 2025
Category: Babies and early years, Disability, Basic Health and Welfare

---

Today, in partnership with the University of Edinburgh’s LLM in Human Rights Law, we are launching a timely report to showcase ongoing efforts to ensure that children’s rights are meaningfully realised in Scotland. It follows the work of Together’s “Tiny Rights Detectives” project, which explored how the youngest children experience and understand their rights.

The investigation highlighted serious gaps in access to justice for babies and young children, sparking the need for a deeper exploration of international practices. A key learning from this work is that babies and young children are largely invisible when it comes to access to justice mechanisms. Despite being rights-holders from birth under the UNCRC, their needs are often excluded from mainstream justice discussions, making this invisibility a central finding of the report.

Together requested that the University of Edinburgh’s LLM in Human Rights Law research team build on these initial findings by examining how other jurisdictions around the world are working to operationalise the rights of babies and young children, particularly in legal and justice systems. The aim is to identify barriers, enablers, and promising practice that can inform Scottish law, policy, and practice, ensuring that even the youngest members of society are seen, heard, and protected.

This includes recognising the interwoven nature of babies’ rights and the rights of their parents or carer, whose ability to advocate and interpret on their behalf directly influences access to justice. The report also highlights how geographical inconsistencies, such as disparities between urban and rural settings, or between well-resourced and under-resourced regions, can impact the effectiveness of rights implementation. The central conclusion of the report is that meaningful access to justice for babies and young children requires legal, policy and practical measures that are not only well-designed individually but are integrated and mutually reinforcing. One element should not come at the expense of another; they must work in concert to ensure a comprehensive and effective system.

• Read Access to Justice for Babies and Young Children Across 12 Jurisdictions Report here

 

Evolution of General Comment 27

This report was invaluable for Together’s submission to the Committee on the Rights of the Child to inform General Comment 27. This General Comment concerns access to justice and effective remedies for babies, children and young people. The work of the University of Edinburgh’s Human Rights Clinic allowed our submission to both highlight the concerning invisibility of babies in mainstream rights discussion, despite their utter dependency on adults. It allowed us to situate the front-line concerns of our members alongside examples of promising international practice. For example, we could cross-reference our member submission from Committed to Ending Abuse (CEA) that children risk being ‘lost in the process’ with examples from Argentina and South Africa of babies having separate legal representation where appropriate. This helps ensure legal standing and protection from rights violations.