Date: 4th September 2020
Category: Education, Leisure and Cultural Activities

Scottish Government has announced that a further £15 million will be provided to expand the Connecting Scotland programme to help a further 23,000 households get online.

Date: 4th September 2020
Category: Education, Leisure and Cultural Activities

A group of organisations and artists have revisited a 2018 campaign which called on Scottish Government to ensure all children can participate in high quality, innovative arts experiences from the earliest age. The organisations fear that fiscal pressures due to COVID-19 may result in reduced funding for arts and creative organisations and initiatives which benefit children.

Date: 4th September 2020
Category: Education, Leisure and Cultural Activities

Using data from 164 countries, new research identifies educational strategies put in place around the world to mitigate the impact of extended school closures on children’s learning. It considers the impact of school closures on the most vulnerable children and highlights examples of good practice.

Date: 4th September 2020
Category: Education, Leisure and Cultural Activities

A compilation of blogs written by World Bank Group between March and June 2020, offers analysis on how the pandemic has impacted the education sector across the globe, from early learning all the way to tertiary education. This resource takes stock and recaps how the World Bank Group’s perspective has changed over time.

Date: 20th August 2020
Category: Disability, Basic Health and Welfare, Civil Rights and Freedoms, Education, Leisure and Cultural Activities, Family Environment and Alternative Care

Eight key policy briefings have been developed to highlight areas of human rights concern during the COVID-19 pandemic and identify how rights can be used to inform Scotland’s recovery.

Date: 20th August 2020
Category: Disability, Basic Health and Welfare, Civil Rights and Freedoms, Education, Leisure and Cultural Activities, Family Environment and Alternative Care

This bulletin explores the human rights implications of member states’ measures to tackle COVID-19 between 1st-30th June 2020. 

Date: 6th August 2020
Category: Education, Leisure and Cultural Activities

Scottish students received their exam results on Tuesday 4th August after school exams were cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions. Overall pass rates were higher than the previous year but a significant number of awards were downgraded from teacher estimates, particularly for young people attending schools in areas of deprivation.

Date: 6th August 2020
Category: Education, Leisure and Cultural Activities

The survey found that almost 70% of the most disadvantaged teenagers did no home learning during lockdown. MCR Pathways is calling for disadvantaged and care-experienced teenagers to be prioritised and provided with in-person teaching in the event of future lockdown restrictions.

Date: 6th August 2020
Category: Education, Leisure and Cultural Activities, Disabled children

The National Autistic Society Scotland is calling on schools to provide personalised transition plans for all autistic children as schools return to in-person learning in August.

Date: 6th August 2020
Category: Education, Leisure and Cultural Activities

A briefing paper by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) analyses the educational responses taken by governments in 20 OECD countries in response to COVID-19. It also includes a set of general recommendations to inform the future development of education strategies.

Date: 22nd July 2020
Category: Civil Rights and Freedoms, Education, Leisure and Cultural Activities

Deputy First Minister John Swinney MSP has responded to numerous asks that more is done to ensure social inequality, racism and Black history are covered in the education curriculum.

Date: 22nd July 2020
Category: Disability, Basic Health and Welfare, Civil Rights and Freedoms, Education, Leisure and Cultural Activities, Family Environment and Alternative Care

The report presents an overview of children’s rights-related progress by and information on the Council of Europe’s actions and achievements under each of the five thematic areas of the Strategy on the Rights of the Child, namely; equal opportunities for all children, participation of all children, a life free from violence for all children, the rights of the child in the digital environment.

Date: 10th July 2020
Category: Disability, Basic Health and Welfare, Civil Rights and Freedoms, Education, Leisure and Cultural Activities

The UN Human Rights Council held its Annual Day on the Rights of the Child on 1st July 2020. For the first time, children human rights defenders spoke in both panels to raise children’s voice and perspectives on the environment.

Date: 25th June 2020
Category: Disability, Basic Health and Welfare, Civil Rights and Freedoms, Education, Leisure and Cultural Activities, Family Environment and Alternative Care

Fundamental Rights Agency’s Fundamental Rights Report 2020 report finds that growing intolerance and attacks on people’s fundamental rights continue to erode the considerable progress of protecting and promoting the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

Date: 25th June 2020
Category: Education, Leisure and Cultural Activities

On 23rd June 2020, the Deputy First Minister John Swinney MSP updated Parliament on plans to reopen schools and announced that Scottish Government will provide a further £100 million over the next two years to help support children returning to school and recover “lost ground”.

Date: 11th June 2020
Category: Disability, Basic Health and Welfare, Civil Rights and Freedoms, Education, Leisure and Cultural Activities

Thirty organisations have contributed their experience, insight, and analysis to form the Consortium’s submission to Scottish Parliament’s Equalities and Human Rights Committee Inquiry: Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Equalities and Human Rights.

Date: 11th June 2020
Category: Disability, Basic Health and Welfare, Education, Leisure and Cultural Activities, Civil Rights and Freedoms, Family Environment and Alternative Care

The report includes data about the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on vulnerable children and families in Scotland in the initial weeks of the ‘lockdown’, and the way that services adapted and responded to the crisis.

Date: 28th May 2020
Category: Disability, Basic Health and Welfare, Civil Rights and Freedoms, Education, Leisure and Cultural Activities

Following reports that parents are facing criticism by members of the public and supermarket staff for bring their children to the shops, the Children and Young People’s Commissioner  Scotland wrote to supermarket Chief Executives urging them to provide guidance and training to staff.

Date: 28th May 2020
Category: Disability, Basic Health and Welfare, Civil Rights and Freedoms, Education, Leisure and Cultural Activities

The concerns of a group of people with lived experience of poverty have been captured in the first five weeks of lockdown. The briefing aims to draw the UK and Scottish Government and Parliament’s attention to the experiences of people in poverty during the pandemic and offer suggestions on how to take a human rights-based approach to directing resources over the coming months.

Date: 28th May 2020
Category: Disability, Basic Health and Welfare, Civil Rights and Freedoms, Education, Leisure and Cultural Activities, General measures of implementation

Aoife Nolan, Professor of International Human Rights Law and Co-Director of the Human Rights Law Centre at the University of Nottingham analyses whether children have become the biggest victims of this pandemic as she explores the effect of COVID-19.