Children are still subjected to violence. We must ensure they are protected

The victory of Grace Campbell and Jane Cosans in stopping state schools using physical punishment sent shockwaves around the world, felt even in New Zealand where I, aged 13, narrowly escaped the cane, thanks to our laws following the UK.

My school vehemently opposed the change, and I vividly remember fearing the cane and its humiliation.

Culture has changed over the last 40 years. It’s virtually unthinkable that teachers once regularly belted or caned children. The creation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989 radically changed the way we see children and childhood.

Last week I was at a school in Kilsyth with UN Committee on the Rights of the Child member, Professor Ann Skelton. Her grandfather had attended it before working in the mines from the age of 13 and eventually emigrating to South Africa. The children had made a display of what school was like in her grandfather’s time, including a Lochgelly tawse borrowed from a museum. They were fascinated by the idea of teachers using such a weapon on them. Skelton talked about how human rights defenders like Grace Campbell and Jane Cosans can change the world, and being a human rights defender requires real bravery. We are seeing that with child human rights defenders leading calls for climate justice.

Human rights defenders’ work hasn’t stopped. It took us until 2020, after decades of campaigning, for Scotland to fully protect children from assault for the purpose of physical punishment. Parents can no longer hit their children and say it was justified. But children are still subjected to other forms of violence. My office investigated restraint in schools in 2018 and heard from children who had been traumatised or injured by being restrained by an adult. We are still waiting for the statutory guidance necessary to ensure they are protected.

It’s shocking that we still use the criminal law to address the behaviour of children as young as 12, two years below the international standard. We still imprison children, often with tragic results.

Scotland was praised last year when the UNCRC Incorporation Bill was passed by the Scottish Parliament but delays mean children are still waiting for their rights to be in law. Now UK Government proposals to reform the Human Rights Act risk stripping away the ones that are there.

There is still much for human rights defenders to do. The pandemic has disproportionately affected children whose rights were already most at risk. The crisis in mental health and impact of poverty need a rights-based response. This anniversary gives us the opportunity to reflect and see how far we’ve come. But we can’t rest. We must keep challenging, even when it’s not popular, to ensure children’s rights are protected by law.