UN children’s rights charter becomes Scottish law

Scotland has become the first UK nation to incorporate a United Nations charter on children’s rights into law.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill requires all of Scotland’s public bodies to ‘seek and protect’ children and young people’s rights.

All bodies must ‘consider them when making policy decisions’ and make it unlawful for them to contravene UNCRC requirements.

The passing of this charter into national law will also mean that children and young people will formally be able use the courts to enforce their basic rights.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) sets out children’s rights relating to health and education, leisure and play, fair and equal treatment, protection from exploitation and the right to be heard.

A bill at Scotland’s Holyrood parliament incorporating it into law was originally passed in 2021 but the UK Supreme Court ruled that certain aspects fell outside the Scottish Parliament’s competence, and would have impacted on UK legislation.

An amended version of the the bill went through a reconsideration stage in February. The government says the leglisation has been changed ‘to reflect our new understanding of the Scottish Parliament’s devolved competence’.