The Children and Young People's Commissioner Scotland

Children’s Commissioners from Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales have highlighted violations of children’s rights in a damning joint report to the United Nations, raising areas of grave concern – including poverty, mental health, and the attack on the Human Rights Act by the UK Government.  In their “report card” to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, Children’s Commissioners Koulla Yiasouma, Bruce Adamson and Rocio Cifuentes have warned that while progress has been made in some areas of children’s rights since the last report in 2016, there are urgent issues which must be addressed across a broad range of rights.   They are pushing the governments across the UK to immediately address the areas in which they are falling short and put children’s rights at the heart of policy, practice and delivery.

Scotland’s Children’s Commissioner Bruce Adamson has written to the regulator Ofgem to urge it to ban energy companies from all compulsory installations of pre-payment meters, a practice that leaves struggling families at severe risk of energy disconnection.   The Commissioner also expresses his grave concern that energy companies are still not effectively identifying vulnerable individuals to provide them, and any dependent children with the support that they desperately need.   In his letter to Chief Executive, Jonathan Brearley, the Commissioner writes: “The compulsory installation of a pre-payment meter where a family is already struggling to pay bills risks amounting to disconnection for all practical purposes.”

The Commissioner’s office has published a toolkit explaining how, why, and when we can use our powers of strategic litigation.

Joint statement reacting to Autumn Statement from Bruce Adamson, Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland, Rocio Cifuentes, Children’s Commissioner for Wales, and Koulla Yiasouma, NI Commissioner for Children and Young People

The Universal Periodic Review is a unique process where the international community holds our governments to account on their human rights record. Throughout the process we have raised significant children’s rights issues in Scotland where immediate progress must be made including tackling child poverty, supporting good mental health, and improving the education system for every child.

As we launch our new report on the Human Rights Act, Policy Officer Cameron-Wong McDermott writes about the importance of the Human Rights Act and the danger of proposed changes.

It is gravely concerning that there are reports of pregnant mothers and infants being housed in hotel rooms and without the financial support they need. Hotel accommodation is completely unsuitable for children and families and should only be used on a short-term basis in an emergency.  

Our Annual Report 2021/2022 starts just as we were coming out of the second lockdown. We’ve worked to safeguard children’s rights during the pandemic and made progress on other key issues.