Children's rights are not being met, says UN report

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child published its report about Britain's standards on improving children's rights.

The Committee, which monitors the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by governments, conducted a review of the third and fourth consolidated reports by the UK government.

The UN Committee raised a number of concerns around the education of children. These concerns included the significant inequalities facing particular groups of children such as those from disadvantaged backgrounds, minority ethnic groups, and asylum seeking children, and children with disabilities; high numbers of school exclusions; and the widespread problem of bullying.

Recommendations by the committee include that the UK government invest additional resources to ensure the right of all children to inclusive education; use exclusion as a means of last resort only; and ensure that children have the right to appeal against their exclusion, and the right to appeal to the special educational needs tribunal.

Kirsten Anderson, joint author of the Children's Legal Centre report State of the Right to Education in England: Alternative report to the Committee on the Rights of the Child on the implementation of the right to education in England, said: The report from the UN Committee reflects many of the concerns raised by the Children's Legal Centre about the right to education in England.

"We are pleased to see that the committee included some of our key recommendations such as ensuring that children have the right to appeal against school exclusions as well as the right to appeal special educational needs provision.

"We are also very pleased to see that the UN Committee has recommended that the government bring its legislation in line with the Convention on the Rights of the Child. We are pleased that the UN Committee supports this and call on the government to implement these recommendations."