Watching the Government examination

By Kathryn Terry, age 12

I went to Geneva to the Palais Wilson, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child’s headquarters. On the 23rd of September the UK Government was questioned about how they have been putting children’s rights into practice all over the UK.

I was part of the NGO (non-government organisation) audience and witnessed (whilst taking notes) the questioning process and also the answering. Very interesting questions were asked, including: ‘Is the UK going to “join the club” and ban corporal punishment (smacking)?’ However, unfortunately (in my opinion) the UK Government have no plans on banning this.

The next day the questions were also answered. Most of the meeting on the 24th September was based on the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict. This was fascinating to see the different points of view on statements and answers to the questions raised.

Basically the Optional Protocol on armed conflict is about children and young people under 18 joining the armed forces, their conditions and situations. The main question was: ‘Is the UK going to raise the joining age to 18?’ The UK refuses to do so.

In the examination of the main UN Convention, I was really glad to see the situation raised about discrimination against certain groups, I see this a very bad condition in the UK.

Imogen and I interviewed some of the main decision-makers at the meeting, including two Committee members and Sir Al, the Children’s Commissioner for England. We also spoke to the head of the Government delegation. This was very interesting to see what they thought of the situation in the UK.

In the concluding observations I hope that the UN Committee will recommend subjects like:

• Raising the age of criminal responsibility (the UK Government say they won’t but it may urge them on)
• Raising more awareness about discrimination so that it may decrease
• Doing more about child poverty – the rate is so bad.

And so much more…!

I really enjoyed the experience and it was such a great opportunity.

Posted on Thursday, September 25, 2008 in