June 2025. We commented on the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child’s draft of their General Comment.

This response draws on our previous submission to the UN Committee[1] and the response we submitted on behalf of our Young Advisors Group (YAG) which explored the experiences of children making complaints in education settings.[2]

We welcome the present draft of General Comment 27 and particularly the acknowledgement that children face significant barriers to achieving justice and effective remedy and specifically that that remedy must be both just and timely.

We thank the Committee for making it clear that access to justice and effective remedy are “an integral part of the primary obligations of States parties to the Convention”.

Reflecting on our YAG’s submission we would suggest that the final line on paragraph 3 be reframed along the lines of “Many children do not speak up, for fear of reprisal and exclusion, or because they feel they will not be listened to…” Our experience is that children have a very strong sense of justice, and they very much do think about speaking up. As our YAG explained, many will already have experience of not being listened to, of their complaints being dismissed and in some cases of negative consequences for themselves.

General principles and foundational elements

The inclusion of a section on evolving capacities is extremely useful in clarifying the Committee’s interpretation of Article 5 in relation to justice. That children can access justice independently and autonomously is an important way of ensuring equal access to justice, particularly if parents lack the ability or willingness to act on their child’s behalf.

We welcome the extensive consideration to best interests in paragraph 15(b) but feel it would be useful for the General Comment to make it clear that best interests should not be used as a reason to deny children access to justice. In our previous submission we outlined the example of a “wellbeing assessment” (in essence best interests) potentially being used to gatekeep children’s access to justice via the Education (Scotland) Act 2016.[3] It would be useful if the General Comment specifically addressed this erroneous interpretation of best interests.

Status of Independent Children’s Rights Institutions

We welcome explicit reference to the essential role played by Independent Children’s Rights Institutions such as ourselves in paragraph 21. However, we are not sure that this captures the legitimate variation in models for such organisations worldwide. Some combine rights advocacy, legislative and policy work and a complaints function, such as our colleagues at the Ombudsman for Children in Ireland. By contrast, none of the Children’s Commissioners in the four nations of the UK have an individual complaints function. In our previous submission we outlined the system in Scotland, where although our office has an investigation function which includes individual investigations, public sector complaints are handled by the Scottish Public Sector Ombudsman, who has recently issued guidance on handling complaints from children.[4] There are some benefits from all complaints being considered by a single body, including awareness of trends of higher than usual complaints from both adult and child complaints. We would suggest that the General Comment is drafted in a way that recognises the range of models and mandates that exist.

Incorporation of the UNCRC

In our previous response we highlighted the importance that incorporation of the UNCRC into domestic law in Scotland has had in increasing children’s right to remedy when their rights have been breached. We recognise that incorporation has been addressed by the Committee in other General Comments and in the case of the UK, in the most recent Concluding Observations and that paragraph 73 refers to the convention being given “legal effect within their domestic legal systems”. Previous measures with relatively vague “due regard” duties, or similar, were sometimes argued to meet the requirement to give “legal effect” to the UNCRC, for instance those in sections 1 and 2 of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014.[5]

We would therefore welcome explicit reference to the importance of full and direct incorporation within the new General Comment. The current position is that not all rights within the UNCRC are incorporated into domestic law across the UK, with incorporation in Scotland subject to the limitations on the competence of the Scottish Parliament.

Complaints

We welcome the focus on children’s rights compliant complaints processes and child-centred alternative dispute resolution mechanisms. These play an important part in securing children’s access to justice. We feel this would be strengthened by explicit clarity that where separate children’s processes are developed, these must focus on addressing barriers and broadening access and should always be given the same status as equivalent adult processes. This will ensure that well-intentioned efforts to better meet children’s needs do not result in a dilution of rights protections.

Legal standing

We are pleased to see extensive exploration of the importance of legal standing to children’s access to justice. We agree that children must be able to access both judicial and non-judicial mechanisms directly and without parental consent.

In addition to the situations outlined in paragraph 29,[6] our earlier submission highlighted situations where parents are involved in a dispute about the child in family courts as one in which a child may wish to become a party to proceedings. [7]

Legal Aid

A child’s legal standing would be largely meaningless without access to qualified legal representation and we welcome acknowledgement of the extent to which this limits children’s access to justice.

In our previous submission we highlighted the barriers to legal aid faced by children in Scotland, in particular due to eligibility being assessed on parental income. Since then, the Scottish Parliament’s Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee has begun an inquiry into Civil Legal Aid. [8] In our evidence to that inquiry, we called for Scottish Government to repeal the 2010 regulations which restricted children’s access to legal aid on the basis of parental income and noted that amongst the actions affected were proceedings under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024.[9]

We note the explicit reference to “legal aid” in paragraph 31 but would welcome strengthening this to reflect the particular importance of qualified legal representation. Whilst access to “legal advice and assistance” and provision of advocacy services can strengthen children’s access to justice, particularly in administrative settings and complaints process, they cannot ever be a substitute for qualified legal representative in judicial and quasi-judicial proceedings (including, in Scotland, Children’s Hearings).[10] They do however provide an important role as part of multidisciplinary, co-ordinated and holistic support as envisaged by paragraphs 39-41.  

Adaptive environment

We highlighted good practice from Scotland on adapting judicial settings to better meet the needs of children and young people and we welcome the reflection of this in paragraphs 46 and 47.

However, we feel that the needs of children in settings they cannot leave at will[11] and in situations of armed conflict are sufficiently important that we would suggest they have their own subheadings, rather than being included in this section. 

Recovery and reintegration

We welcome the attention paid in this section to the needs of child victims of crimes, with the clear link to Article 39 and the need for support before, during and after “the remedial process”. We would welcome further elaboration on what is meant by “remedial process” and recognition that a child’s access to support for recovery and rehabilitation for child victims of crime should not be dependent on the outcome of any criminal proceedings, or indeed whether or not criminal charges have even been laid.

Satisfaction and Guarantee of non-repetition

The draft General Comment provides significant guidance on compensation and restitution. It is important to recognise that children do have the right to compensation when their rights are breached, particularly when that breach will have long-lasting or even life-long consequences. However, children and young people (including our YAG) have told us that in many cases it is not financial redress that they are seeking but other forms of remedy, such an acknowledgement that their rights have been breached, a formal apology or even a commitment that what happened to them will not happen to them again, or to another child. As the draft explains, this is about their experience of making a complaint or bringing legal action, not just the final outcome.

Allocation of resources and co-operation with civil society

In our earlier response we provided the Children (Scotland) Act 2020 as an example of significant legislative progress in realising children’s rights where a lack of resources has significantly delayed implementation. Most of the measures to support children’s participation in judicial proceedings have still not been commenced. We recently highlighted the impact that this has had to an Inquiry by the Scottish Parliament’s Equality, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee on Non-implementation of Acts of the Scottish Parliament.[12]

We also note the emphasis on ensuring a competent and well-remunerated workforce. Third sector organisations (civil society/NGOs) provide an important part in providing support to children in contact with the justice system (including Children’s Hearings and the Health and Education Chamber Tribunal). This includes providing advice and information on children’s rights, advocacy support, recovery support. There are also several non-profit law centres which provide children with legal representation. Most third sector organisations receive some public funding from Scottish Government and/or other public authorities. Many also receive grant funding from large charities and/or have their own charitable income. In its recent Pre-Budget Scrutiny on Third Sector Funding Principles, the Scottish Parliament’s Social Justice and Social Security Committee highlighted the financial sustainability issues faced by the third sector, the impact of that on their staff and on their ability to delivery these vital public services.[13]

Child rights education

We welcome the inclusion of child rights education in the context of access to justice and effective remedy and that the Committee has made it clear that this is the responsibility of States. Children’s rights education and awareness raising must develop beyond awareness of the existence of the UNCRC and its articles to what exercising those rights means in each country. We continue to be concerned that some rights education lacks the necessary depth, can be focussed on children’s rights in other countries and shies away from ensuring children have the knowledge and skills to claim their rights.

Power imbalances

In our previous submission we highlighted our concerns about the power imbalances inherent in many judicial, quasi-judicial and administrative systems, particularly in more complex or formal proceedings. Whilst the measures outlined in the draft general comment will definitely help address these, we believe that explicitly acknowledging the power dynamics involved in these systems is an important way of ensuring that they are recognised and addressed. We would welcome this to be given a prominent place in the final text.

Conclusion

We welcome the development of this draft and eagerly await publication of the finalised General Comment. It addresses the breadth of forms that access to justice and effective remedy can take for children and young people.

[1] CYPCS, 2024. Draft General Comment 27 on Children’s Rights to Access to Justice and Effective Remedies. https://www.cypcs.org.uk/wpcypcs/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/DRAFT-GC27-response.pdf

[2] CYPCS, 2024. Draft General Comment 27 – Children’s Rights to Access to Justice and Effective Remedies Young Advisors Group.  https://www.cypcs.org.uk/wpcypcs/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/GC27-YAG-response-Dec-24-FINAL.pdf

[3] CYPCS, 2024. Draft General Comment 27 on Children’s Rights to Access to Justice and Effective Remedies. https://www.cypcs.org.uk/wpcypcs/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/DRAFT-GC27-response.pdf page 4

[4] SPSO, 2024.  Child Friendly Complaints Handling Process Guidance.  

[5] Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014. Section 1 (as enacted, but repealed by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation)(Scotland) Act 2024).  https://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2014/8/section/1/enacted v

[6] i.e. where parents may not agree with a child, are not supportive of their action or are themselves responsible for the breach of the child’s rights

[7] CYPCS, 2024. Draft General Comment 27 on Children’s Rights to Access to Justice and Effective Remedies. https://www.cypcs.org.uk/wpcypcs/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/DRAFT-GC27-response.pdf page 5

[8] Scottish Parliament, 2025.  Legal Aid.  https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/committees/current-and-previous-committees/session-6-equalities-human-rights-and-civil-justice-committee/business-items/legal-aid

[9] CYPCS, 2025.  Civil Legal Aid. https://www.cypcs.org.uk/resources/civil-legal-aid/

[10] CYPCS, 2024. Draft General Comment 27 on Children’s Rights to Access to Justice and Effective Remedies. https://www.cypcs.org.uk/wpcypcs/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/DRAFT-GC27-response.pdf page 4-5

[11] In Scotland this would include secure care and where a child was detained under mental health legislation.

[12] CYPCS, December 2024. Non-implementation of Acts of the Scottish Parliament. https://www.cypcs.org.uk/resources/non-implementation-of-acts-of-the-scottish-parliament/

[13] Scottish Parliament: Social Justice and Social Security Committee. Pre-Budget Scrutiny 2025-26: Third sector funding principles. https://bprcdn.parliament.scot/published/SJSS/2024/11/13/287b8aaf-931b-4526-80e0-c0f9ee6c0682/SJSSS062024R12.pdf