Sir Frank Peters

Scotland is protecting and empowering its most valuable assets – it’s children.

While other countries – including Bangladesh – stand on the sidelines gaping and chanting that their children are their most valuable assets, Scotland has gone beyond the hollow political headline-grabbing rhetoric.

In 2020, Scotland gave a thistle sting to Britain’s four-nation union by becoming the first to outlaw corporal punishment to its children in all settings. Now it’s becoming the first to incorporate a UN charter on children's rights into law.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) Bill comes into force next Tuesday and requires all of Scotland’s public authorities, including the government and police, to seek to protect children and young people’s rights, to consider them when making policy decisions and make it unlawful for them to contravene UNCRC requirements. It also allows children to use the courts to remedy/enforce their rights with due dignity and respect.

The UNCRC Convention has 54 articles that cover all aspects of a child's life and sets out their civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights to health and education, leisure and play, fair and equal treatment, protection from exploitation and the right to be heard. It offers children complete protection and the convention is universal. These rights apply to every child, irrespective of their geographical location, and entitles every child to claim them.

Admirably, Bangladesh signed the Convention on 26 January 1990 and was one of the first two states in the region to ratify it in August 1990, demonstrating the country's early commitment to children's rights. One can only wonder what went wrong since. How did the nation lose focus?

Scotland’s children’s Minister Natalie Don welcomes the protection it will give Scottish children and describes it as a “landmark moment".

A Holyrood bill incorporating it into law was originally passed in 2021 but the UK Supreme Court ruled some provisions were outside the Scottish Parliament's competence and would have impacted on Westminster legislation.

The bill was since amended and the convention sets out children’s right to be safe and their right to access support services to help them recover from abuse or neglect.

A "historic" moment is how Nicola Killean – the Children and Young People's Commissioner Scotland ­– describes it. "It gives all children more protection," she said.

"That's important for all children in Scotland, but it's especially vital for those whose rights are most likely to be ignored or violated – those whose rights are most at risk. That includes disabled children, those living in poverty, young carers, care experienced children, and black and minority ethnic children," she said.

Ms Killean said the passing of the bill is a monumental milestone in the protection of children in Scotland and has taken “huge leaps forwards” on children’s rights, but has warned it’s only the beginning and further education was needed. “There is much more to do and we cannot afford to allow complacency to creep in,” she said.

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) is an important, legally binding agreement signed by 196 countries (as of 12 July 2022) which outlines the fundamental rights of every child, regardless of their race, religion or abilities.

It’s hard to believe, that in 1990 – over three decades ago ­– Bangladesh initially played an exemplary leading role in offering children protection by signing The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child ... but its copy seemingly has been misplaced.

In 2011 Supreme Court Justice Md. Imman Ali and Justice Md. Sheikh Hasan Arif defined the despicable act of corporal punishment as ‘cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and a clear violation of a child’s fundamental right to life, liberty, and freedom’... but the abuse continues, and will continue, while it’s allowed to continue.

The writer is a former newspaper and magazine publisher and editor, an award-winning writer, humanitarian, human rights activist Honorary Member of the Bangladesh Freedom Fighters and a foreign friend of Bangladesh.