It’s clear that the coronavirus pandemic and Scotland’s response to it has had an enormous impact on children’s human rights.
In order for the Government to comply with its obligations in international and Scots law, it has to assess the impact of those decisions on children before making them.
But there hasn’t been enough work done on what that impact looks like.
Although the Scottish Government has published Children’s Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessments on some of the legislation passed around the pandemic, it is important that these assessments are done thoroughly and that they cover all law and policy that affects children.
So we worked with the Observatory of Children’s Human Rights Scotland to conduct an Independent Children’s Rights Impact Assessment.
Independent Children’s Rights Impact Assessment on the Response to Covid-19 in Scotland
July 2020. This independent Children’s Rights Impact Assessment is a thorough analysis of how emergency laws and policies around the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the human rights of children and young people in Scotland.
Undertaken by the Observatory of Children’s Human Rights Scotland, it is the biggest Children’s Rights Impact Assessment in the world that’s been done on laws and policies passed in response to COVID-19.
Children’s version: Independent Children’s Rights Impact Assessment on the Response to COVID-19 in Scotland
July 2020. This is a report about a children’s rights impact assessment – or CRIA – the Commissioner asked a group of children’s rights experts called the Observatory of Children’s Human Rights Scotland to do.
Adults in power often make decisions that affect people― such as laws and policies. When they do this, they don’t always think about the impact these decisions will have on children and young people.
A Children’s Rights Impact Assessment, or CRIA,is a way to include children and young people in a decision. It looks at the ways the decision might affect the rights of children and young people― both positively and negatively.
By doing this, it means people know what the effect of the decision on children and young people is likely to be.
More in the Rights questions and answers section
What makes up the Impact Assessment?
The Independent Impact Assessment is made up of nine different Impact Assessments by experts on how children and young people’s rights have been affected in specific areas. These are summarised in the webpages below, which together make up the young person’s version of the report.
The nine full Impact Assessments are also included as appendices to the main report.
The pandemic’s impact on: Children and young people’s physical health
How an Independent Impact Assessment found Scotland’s coronavirus laws and policies affected children and young people’s rights around physical health.
The pandemic’s impact on: Children and young people’s mental health
How an Independent Impact Assessment found Scotland’s coronavirus laws and policies affected children and young people’s rights around mental health.
The pandemic’s impact on: Children and young people’s education
How an Independent Impact Assessment found Scotland’s coronavirus laws and policies affected children and young people’s rights around education.
The pandemic’s impact on: Children and young people in poverty
How an Independent Impact Assessment found Scotland’s coronavirus laws and policies affected children and young people’s rights around poverty.
The pandemic’s impact on: Children and young people’s rest, recreation and play
How an Independent Impact Assessment found Scotland’s coronavirus laws and policies affected children and young people’s rights to rest, recreation and play.
The pandemic’s impact on: Child Protection, Children’s Hearings and Care
How an Independent Impact Assessment found Scotland’s coronavirus laws and policies affected children and young people’s rights around child protection.
The pandemic’s impact on: Domestic abuse
How an Independent Impact Assessment found Scotland’s coronavirus laws and policies affected children and young people’s rights around domestic abuse.
The pandemic’s impact on: Children and young people with disabilities and ASNs
How an Independent Impact Assessment found Scotland’s coronavirus laws and policies affected the rights of children and young people with ASNs or a disability.
The pandemic’s impact on: Children and young people in conflict with the law and in secure care
How an Independent Impact Assessment found Scotland’s coronavirus laws and policies affected children and young people in conflict with the law and in secure care.
What needs to change as a result of this Impact Assessment?
Our office has made several recommendations around what Scottish Government and others need to change as a result of what this Impact Assessment has found. They’re changes which will help keep human rights promises to children and young people as we recover from the coronavirus pandemic, and which will safeguard their human rights in any future crisis.