A coalition of 75 children’s organisations has called for “urgent action” to fix the UK’s “draconian and punitive” youth justice system.
In the wake of a damning UN report looking at British children's rights, the Alliance for Youth Justice has warned not only of a lack of progress on tackling existing problems but that more issues have arisen since its last review.
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, which recently published its first report on the UK in seven years, revealed almost all recommendations on policing and justice it published in 2016 are yet to be addressed.
These include its call for the government to raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 10 years old to at least 14, to ensure detention in custody is a last resort and to ban police from using harmful devices like Tasers and spit hoods on children.
The committee’s latest report calls for the strip searching of children to be banned, for police officers to be removed from schools, and for police remand and overnight detention in police cells to end.
It also demands a definition of child criminal exploitation is included in the Victims’ Bill.
The draft legislation is currently passing through Parliament and is set to face amendments before it becomes law.
Labour told the Mirror it will put forward amendments that ensure the definition of victims includes those of child criminal exploitation.
Alliance for Youth Justice policy manager Millie Harris said the UN’s recommendations “demonstrate not just inaction since the UK was last examined seven years ago, but a number of growing threats to children’s rights”.
“It is clear from the increasing number of recommendations and stern words in the report that the Committee is increasingly worried about violence and abuse against children at the hands of the State, including by the police and in secure settings, as well as racism and discrimination across society,” she said.
“The government expects the number of children in custody to more than double in coming years, yet instead of doing everything in its power to prevent that prediction becoming a reality, there is a complete absence of a clear vision or ambition for children in custody.
“Without urgent action to address the encroachment of police in children’s lives, reform policing practices and remove powers that harass, abuse and traumatise children, more children - particularly Black and working class children in overpoliced communities - will be criminalised.”
Shadow Victims Minister Anna McMorrin said: “The targeting of vulnerable children by criminal gangs is abhorrent and sadly all too rife.
“The lack of a legal definition of child exploitation means these children are being treated as criminals, rather than victims - with no support or protection.
“Labour has long campaigned on this issue, and will fight to ensure that children are protected in law.”
The UN report said: “The Committee is deeply concerned about the draconian and punitive nature of its child justice system, and the limited progress in implementing the Committee’s previous recommendations to bring the State party’s child justice system in line with the Convention [the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child].”
A Government spokeswoman said: “The number of children in custody has fallen by more than three-quarters in the last decade.
“There are no plans to raise the age of criminal responsibility."
* Follow Mirror Politics on Snapchat, Tiktok, Twitter and Facebook.
