Written - Proposed Rights of Children and Young Persons (Wales) Measure

Members will wish to note that the Proposed Rights of Children and Young Persons (Wales) Measure will be laid today, 14 June 2010. I will be making a Legislative Statement in plenary tomorrow, 15 June 2010, to introduce the proposed Measure.

The main purpose of this proposed Measure is to impose a duty upon the Welsh Ministers and the First Minister to have due regard to the rights and obligations in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and its Optional Protocols, when making decisions of a strategic nature about how to exercise their functions.

The proposed Measure will require the Welsh Ministers to make a children’s scheme, setting out their arrangements for complying with the due regard duty and their criteria for identifying those decisions which are decisions of a strategic nature.  The scheme can also contain other matters and can require the Welsh Minsters to report on those other matters. The Welsh Ministers must obtain approval from the Assembly for the scheme before they can make it and this will follow a broader consultation exercise on it. The purpose of these provisions is to ensure that there is transparency about the arrangements in place to achieve compliance with the duty to have due regard to the UNCRC and its Optional Protocols.  It will ensure that those arrangements are robust; they will be tested through consultation and will have to be acceptable to the Assembly. 

The proposed Measure will require the Welsh Ministers to report periodically on compliance with the duty to have due regard to the UNCRC and its Optional Protocols. The children’s scheme may require them to also publish reports on the operation of the scheme or other matters mentioned in it. Such reports may highlight circumstances which make it appropriate to amend legislation in ways which fall within devolved legislative competence, in order to give further and better effect to the UNCRC and its Optional Protocols. The proposed Measure will give the Welsh Ministers a power to make subordinate legislation to make such amendments, subject to affirmative procedure in the Assembly.

The proposed Measure will also require the Welsh Ministers to take appropriate steps to promote knowledge and understanding of the UNCRC and its Optional Protocols amongst the public, including children. Knowledge and understanding of their human rights allow children and young people to generally have improved self-confidence, higher expectations and gives them the opportunity to fulfil their potential and become more responsible citizens. A wider understanding of the UNCRC and its Optional Protocols amongst adults and organisations is vital in ensuring that the rights and obligations they contain are respected and realised.

The proposed Measure will also require the Welsh Ministers to consider and consult on the relevance of the UNCRC and its Optional Protocols to young people (those aged 18 to 24), and on the potential application of the Measure to them.

I look forward to working with Assembly Members over the coming months as we take this proposed Measure through its scrutiny process.