UN Children's Summit
The final item of business today is a members' business debate on motion S1M-2950, in the name of Fiona McLeod, on the United Nations children's summit on 8 to 10 May 2002. The debate will be concluded without any question being put. I invite members who wish to speak in the debate to press their request-to-speak buttons.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament welcomes the United Nations Special Session on Children 2002 which will take place in New York on 8 - 10 May 2002; commends the recognition accorded by the summit to the need for adults to listen to the views of young people; considers that the Scottish Executive should regularly monitor and report on the implementation of commitments by Her Majesty's Government that arise from the Special Session and relate to Scotland's children; congratulates Save the Children for organising its "world fit for children" event in Edinburgh to coincide with this summit, and believes that a "Children and Young People's Summit" should be held annually by the Parliament.
In opening, I say that we should remember that the debate was originally scheduled for 19 September last year, to coincide with the original date of the UN special session on children. Unfortunately, it had to be cancelled after the tragic events of 11 September last year. Those tragic events led to a new political climate and to new political tensions throughout the world. In that new political climate, it is even more important that young people's voices are heard.
Conflict affects young people in many ways. Conflict affects young people directly—it kills them. Conflict bereaves young people when their parents and relatives are killed. In too many instances around the world, it directly affects young people and children who are enlisted as soldiers. If listening to young people is accepted and becomes the norm, we will not forget in times of stress and chaos that we should listen to young people and that they should be heard.
The UN special session in two weeks' time, from 8 to 10 May, should be considered the norm. At that special session, young people will sit alongside heads of state, heads of Government and Nelson Mandela. We hope that, at the end of the special session, the heads of state will ratify the statement, "A world fit for children." The statement has been prepared with input from young people all round the world.
It is appropriate for the Parliament to thank Save the Children for its preparatory work in Scotland through its video and information pack, which allowed organisations to help young people to express their opinions. Save the Children will pass those opinions on to the UN special session. Save the Children will further reinforce that when it holds its special link-up in Edinburgh on 9 May, when young people from throughout Scotland will talk to our young representative at the special session, Ellen. That will ensure that the discussion is informed from Scotland and that the discussion informs our thoughts in Scotland.
In 1990, a world summit was held on children's issues. Scotland can do better. We should not have to wait 12 years while the world thinks about holding another summit or special session. I hope that the minister will agree with me and many of the members who will speak that the Parliament should have an annual report—a state of the nation statement—of what the Parliament has done for young people and what it proposes to do. In addition to an annual report and an annual debate on that report, I hope that we will hold an annual meeting with the young people of Scotland, at which they can say, "You've got the statistics and the facts, now hear what we've got to say and our report card on what the Scottish Parliament is doing each year for the people of Scotland."
It is sad that Scotland still has to do better. In 1995, a report was published on the UK's—I admit that it was not entirely Scotland's—contribution to and compliance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. I will highlight from that report three issues on which the UK and Scotland fall down in their compliance with the convention—physical punishment, immigration and asylum policies and the age of criminal responsibility. We must do more. The best thing that we can do to ensure that those three issues and others are dealt with is fully to sign up to and implement article 12 of the convention.
Article 12 says that we must listen to young people, but we must go further than that. We must act on what young people tell us are their concerns. Young people have made their views on some matters clear. The 1995 report to which I referred pointed out our lack of provision for ending the physical punishment of children. The Parliament is engaging in a debate on the Executive's proposals to end smacking, with some provisos. In Save the Children's consultation on the Executive's proposals, more than three quarters of young people said that smacking is unacceptable.
The cross-party group on children and young people has held consultation events with young people. A theme that has run through those events is that young people say, "We need somewhere to go. We need somewhere that is our space." I would like the minister to say that he has not only listened to those young people, but acted on what they have said and will produce a strategy on the provision of what we might call youth cafes for the young people of Scotland.
I commend to the minister the 76 Church of Scotland children's forums, which were established recently. Those forums are for eight to 14-year-old members of the Church of Scotland. The forums allow their members to get together to discuss what they want their church to do. More than that, the adult representative at the children's forums must report their findings to the relevant board of the Church of Scotland.
I will turn briefly to the international situation, because we have to consider that.
The member has one and a half minutes.
Thank you.
The United States of America is one of the few countries that has not signed up fully to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. That is because it does not agree with the article that sets out that the death penalty must not apply to young people under the age of 18. We must put pressure on the United States to ensure that it signs up to that article.
I would also like to draw the Parliament's attention to President Bush's withdrawal of funds for contraceptive projects in the third world. The withdrawal of those funds has led to an increase in the number of women who die from pregnancy and childbirth-related conditions. It is pertinent and the chamber should know that, when a mother dies in pregnancy or in childbirth, there is a 50 per cent increase in the risk that her surviving children under the age of five will die before they reach the age of five. There is a crying need to provide proper contraceptive information across the world.
Let us listen to the young people when they meet in New York in a fortnight. Let us commit ourselves to an annual strategy, an annual report, an annual debate and an annual consultation with the young people of Scotland. Let us, in the words of Ravi Gurumurthy, the chair of the Carnegie young people initiative,
"work towards the day when it is not your age that counts, but the contribution that you are making."
There will be six speeches. I ask members to keep their contributions to not much more than three minutes.
I congratulate Fiona McLeod on securing the debate. I understand why it had to be put off the last time.
Like most other MSPs in the chamber, I meet children from schools in my constituency when they come to the Scottish Parliament. Last week, I was particularly pleased about a visit that was made to the Parliament by children from St Kevin's Primary School in Bargeddie. They were the first children from a primary school who have visited me at the Parliament. Tomorrow, I will meet a group from St Ambrose High School in Coatbridge. The problem with the visits of those two groups is that I have had to arrange them. That is because, until the end of the year, the Parliament's education service is oversubscribed. I will return later to that problem.
The children and the young people who visit the Parliament seem to enjoy their visits. They have loads of questions about how the Parliament works, what I do as an MSP and how much everything costs. When they are asked for suggestions, they always have ideas about the issues that they would like to see the Parliament address and prioritise. The children from St Kevin's wanted play parks to be made a priority issue. That is interesting, because play parks was one of the issues that I raised a couple of years ago when I secured a debate on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The children from St Kevin's thought that universal free school meals was an incredibly good idea. It is worth listening to what children have to say.
It is excellent that so many children and young people visit the Parliament. It is important that all children, from babies right through to teenagers, should be made welcome when they do so. I want to make that point strongly. Their visits should be a positive experience. It was excellent to see well-behaved babies in the Parliament during the debate on breast-feeding last year.
A welcoming atmosphere may help to influence positively young peoples' views of politics and politicians. I suspect that, when those young people are adults, it will make them keener to participate in the political process.
Benjamin Disraeli said:
"The Youth of a Nation are the Trustees of Posterity".
It is important for children and young people to feel that they belong. They should feel that they are part of a family, a community and of society. They should feel that their individual participation in the democratic process is not simply their right, but their responsibility.
We live in a democracy, but one in which unfortunately a large number of people, who feel alienated from society for whatever reason, do not participate. That issue is of particular importance when it comes to national and local elections. This week, we have seen the dangers of alienation in what happened in France.
Parents, relatives, friends and teachers are all an influence in the development of a child's sense of morality and responsibility. That is of particular importance in the interaction between older people and young people. The gradual demise of the extended family has affected that interaction. It has resulted in little opportunity for children and young people to meet and have positive relationships with adults other than their parents and teachers, which can result in alienation between the generations. Worryingly, it can also mean that older people fear and distrust young people to the extent that they sometimes do not want to leave their homes. There is an excellent project in Coatbridge in which young and older people meet to address that problem and build mutual respect. I do not have time to go into that project in detail.
It is important that young people feel part of society and have a sense of ownership and responsibility, not only for themselves but for the whole of society. Children and young people must feel included in democratic structures and be confident that their individual contribution matters.
I mentioned the education service. Perhaps we should ask the service to do some outreach work to our schools. We should also consider funding schools and children to come to the Parliament. One of the most important points that Fiona McLeod made was that we have to listen to young people, and I very much support her proposal to hold a children and young people's summit.
I congratulate both Fiona McLeod on securing the debate, and Save the Children on organising the forthcoming event in Edinburgh.
I agree that children and young people should be listened to and involved, especially now that, thanks to ever-increasing information from television and the internet, many of them are far more aware of world events than perhaps was the case in the past. Their formative years will shape the society of the future.
Children are not a class of their own. They are part of families and therefore part of society and, as such, it is up to parents and adults—who have more rights than they have—to accept the duties that are involved in piloting young people until they reach an age when they themselves can take the rudder. However, it is also vital that we in the Scottish Parliament accept that it is our duty to reduce the disparities and pervasive poverty that are outlined in Save the Children's policy briefing. They are also highlighted in Kofi Annan's report, which exposes the fact that there is still a mountain to climb. One hundred and thirty million children are still not in school, and 20 million have been forced out of their homes by war.
Although we in this country have come a long way from sending children up chimneys, child slavery still exists worldwide. Furthermore, the modern internet has exposed children to a new abuse that is increasing at an alarming speed. Can members imagine how a child who has been abused must feel when he or she realises that images of that abuse are available worldwide on the internet? Recently, police throughout the UK carried out a six-month operation called Magenta against internet paedophiles, concentrating on people who used internet chat rooms to advertise and trade images of child abuse. Those arrested included people in care work, teaching and medicine.
The operation highlights the dangers of a new jungle that our children could experience and which is very far from a world fit for them. However, as they have to deal with those dangers, it is all the more necessary to involve children and young people in formulating modern policy against this evil.
A report in today's Edinburgh Evening News says that officers in Lothian and Borders probed 163 cases of child cruelty last year, which is a 33 per cent increase on the number of cases that were investigated the previous year. Save the Children's figures on child poverty in Scotland are also alarming. Thirty per cent of children in Scotland are affected by poverty, and the Scottish Executive must address the fact that 60 per cent of Glasgow's population is still living in areas of multiple deprivation. Our children need hope, and tackling those problems would be a good start. The UN special session will call for a UK national plan of action, and any Scottish input to that plan should include consultation with youngsters over how the lives of families in deprived areas can be improved. That would be a key element in arriving at equitable solutions.
My party believes that we should have a children's commissioner, and we also believe in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. We are glad that the UK delegation in New York will include two young people, one of whom is Ellen Leaver from Scotland. I send all my good wishes to her. In this way, children will learn that with an individual's rights come duties to society. I hope that that lesson will mean less crime, abuse and war and more responsibility and love among the adults that young people will become.
I congratulate Fiona McLeod on securing this debate. I have worked on the Education, Culture and Sport Committee with Fiona, and I am well aware of her determination that children's issues and listening to children should be at the heart of the Scottish Parliament's agenda. She is the right person to propose the motion.
I welcome the special UN session. It will be a session of huge importance, with all the heads of government attending and all the status that that implies for the occasion. There will be a genuine focus on the massive problems that face the children of our world. Jamie McGrigor quoted some of the statistics so I will not take up members' time repeating them. We have all seen the Save the Children briefing that outlines the horrific statistics.
We all know that there is a danger that, at such special high-profile events as the UN session, we talk a good talk and national leaders get good photo opportunities but that, once the flags have been flown, the tents are folded and the people all go home. We must ensure, however we can, that that does not happen in this case and that the 1990 UN children's programme is not once again left to lie unachieved. One of the special things about the UN session is that the children themselves will be heard, and we know that when children are listened to they can be powerful advocates. I do not think that any of us will ever forget Nkosi Johnson, the young South African boy who spoke unforgettably at the world AIDS conference in Durban last July.
The motion mentions the involvement of children at the Scottish level. In a more local context, I recall the evidence that was taken by the Education, Culture and Sport Committee on special educational needs and as part of the Scottish Qualifications Authority inquiry. Young people gave evidence that changed the way that people thought about the topics before them. I genuinely believe that this Parliament has a promising record on listening to children. We take evidence in committees and go out to meet children. There is consultation on establishing a children's commissioner, as well as the youth parliament and youth forums that we have established. Fiona McLeod mentioned other ways in which we are learning to listen to children. The proposal to establish a children's commissioner is central to the kind of involvement that we are discussing tonight.
I welcome Save the Children's special session, which is to be held in Edinburgh in May. I congratulate Save the Children on the consultation document that gave rise to the proposal for the world fit for children event. In thanking Save the Children, the Parliament should also take the opportunity to praise the work of the many other organisations that work on behalf of the children of Scotland, including Children in Scotland, Children 1st, Child Poverty Action Group and Barnardo's.
On this occasion, however, we are pointing out the importance of listening to children themselves and allowing them to have their own voice. At the end of the motion, Fiona McLeod calls for
"a ‘Children and Young People's Summit' … held annually by the Parliament."
That proposal is well worth considering, although I recognise that there are other forums in which children have an opportunity to give their views. Fiona McLeod described such a summit as a kind of report card on how we were working, how things were progressing and how children saw matters. That seems a tremendous idea.
I look forward to the special sessions in May, both in New York and in Edinburgh, and I hope that they will help to promote and prompt real action to shape a better future for the children of the world.
It is appropriate at this moment to welcome Ellen Leaver, who is in the gallery tonight, and to wish her very good wishes from all of us in the Scottish Parliament on her mission to New York.
The UN special summit will address a global agenda and action plan, but that plan will require local delivery. I would like to mention briefly one or two Scottish initiatives that I hope will deliver a better world for children. The child strategy statement was originally issued by the then Scottish Office in 1998, but was updated and reissued in 2000 by the Scottish Executive. The need for that strategy remains, because children still have decisions made about them and taken for them, often without their wishes or needs ever having been considered. Despite the fact that they make up a fifth of Scotland's population, they have a very limited opportunity to comment on policies that impact upon them.
All departments in the Scottish Executive are supposed to evaluate the impact on children of new initiatives—in effect to child-proof legislation. They do that by asking a number of questions as legislation progresses, such as: can the policy positively enhance opportunities for children in Scotland? That process has received a great deal of support. The principles behind the process and its intention are absolutely correct. It is a means by which we could measure all policies against, for example, the requirements of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The minister will sense a "but" coming up here and there is one, because that child-proofing has a number of weaknesses in its content and implementation. There is no mechanism for independent monitoring, so it is very difficult to assess the usefulness and effectiveness of the child-proofing, and whether the impact of policies on children is being taken into account. There is also no requirement to report to Parliament or to the public in general. There is no provision for follow-up if a department decides that a policy would not have an impact on children. Most important, there is no established or sustainable means of consulting children and young people. That leads me to suggest that either the child strategy statement is not the most effective means of child-proofing legislation in the Parliament, or that we need to strengthen it, perhaps by making it more proactive and introducing monitoring and public reporting.
That leads to another issue, which is about statistics. Countries need to be able to collect, analyse and disaggregate data by a number of factors—such as age, sex and so on—that lead to disparities. That could promote a wide range of child-focused research. I suggest to the minister that perhaps the Executive needs to review and enhance its collection and analysis of data on children in Scotland, because we know that there are major gaps in the availability of such statistical information. That leads to difficulties in making comparisons, for example across the four countries of the UK. Therefore, we do not know how children in Scotland are doing compared with children elsewhere in the United Kingdom.
The children's commissioner has been mentioned. A commissioner could deal with many of the issues that we are discussing today, including monitoring and reporting. As Fiona McLeod rightly highlighted, a commissioner could help to involve children meaningfully. If we learned anything from the evidence that the Education, Culture and Sport Committee took in making our first report on a children's commissioner it was—as young people said—that such a commissioner must address the needs of all young people who live in Scotland. I very much hope that through global and local initiatives we are working towards achievement of that goal.
I congratulate Fiona McLeod on securing the debate and I commend her and other members on the issues that they have raised.
I will raise a few other points. First, following on from the rights of the child to a clean and healthy environment and love, care and affection, I flag up that the cross-party group in the Scottish Parliament on children and young people will be considering the built environment. That is very important. If we do not ensure that the built environment is child friendly, we are committing a crime against children that goes down through decades. It is time that we address the issue and it is time that the big house builders also address it.
My second point is the idea that we should always think local as well as global. When we think local about what happens in our schools and our communities, do we listen enough to children? Most schools now have school councils of one kind or another, but too often they are pretendy wee councils. They are not real councils. A school council must have a budget and the children must have something to spend. Even £30 or £40 would give children the opportunity to take real decisions—the benefits of which they would be able to see for themselves—instead of passing little notes around with complaints about the length of their lunch time or the condition of the food. It might be that the Executive has the opportunity to encourage all schools to have a standard of school council that would give children the opportunity to take real decisions.
My third point is about listening to young people. We should encourage more young people to attend community councils and to take part in the decisions. Of course, that begs the questions whether we give enough support to community councils and whether there are enough of them. If we had real community councils with real budgets—rather than pretendy community councils—it would be worth encouraging young people to attend them and to stand for election.
I, too, would like to congratulate Ellen Leaver and Fiona McLeod, but I do not have time.
I want to speak about the part of the motion that states:
"the Scottish Executive should regularly monitor and report".
I believe that Her Majesty's Government has commitments to children that the Scottish Executive should monitor and on which it should report the results to the Parliament. Those commitments were made when the UK Government ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in December 1991, which means that the Government should obey the law as written in that convention. Article 1 of the convention says that everyone under 18 years has the rights under the convention. Sadly, I think that the UK Government falls down on article 4, which says that Governments should make the rights available to children.
The UK Government also falls down on its refusal to ratify article 22, which states that children who come into a country as refugees should have the same rights as children who are born in that country. We can see in Scotland why the UK Government refused to ratify article 22. I refer to the fact that in a Home Office immigration removal centre in the area that I represent, which was recently reclassified without our knowledge, children are held under lock and key and behind barbed wire. That is a direct result of UK Government policy.
When some of my colleagues visited that centre—Dungavel—last week, 16 children were living in the family unit. They do not go to school and are educated in-house. They must pass through locked doors to get outside to play. The Executive allows that to happen and—as far as I know—puts no pressure on its UK partners to stop the practice.
We should insist to the Executive that the so-called risk of absconding does not outweigh the damage to children who are denied their freedom, and that in Scotland we should explore community reporting procedures as an alternative to locking up children. We should ensure that the Home Office does not force Scottish local authorities into a breach of their duties under the Children (Scotland) Act 1995. I am sure that Scottish local authorities and sheriffs would be most concerned about cases of children being wakened early in the morning, being removed from their place of residence and losing their access to school education and to friends that they have made. There is nothing in the Immigration Act 1971, as amended, to overrule the provisions of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995.
Before the minister says that the matter is reserved, I will say that that is not good enough. Westminster MPs have tried to cloud the issue by accusing members of the cross-party parliamentary group on refugees and asylum seekers of criticising the workers at the Dungavel centre. That is not the case. The group criticised the Government's policy of locking up people who have not committed a crime and who have children. One Westminster MP, Mr Harris, said on "Newsnight" that the cross-party group on refugees and asylum seekers is no different from Westminster's all-party group on "Coronation Street". I do not believe that members of the all-party group on "Coronation Street" have ever visited children behind barbed wire. I ask that members, while feeling good about the motion—which is very worthy—remember that there are children in Scotland whom the Parliament is letting down very badly.
I welcome the opportunity to respond to the motion. I also welcome representatives of Save the Children and others who are in the public gallery this evening. Many of them have done a great deal of work on this issue and to promote the various other issues to which members have referred.
I congratulate Fiona McLeod on lodging the motion for the Parliament to discuss. It serves to remind us all of the global commitment that is required on children's issues and the commitment that the Parliament and the Executive have made to young people in Scotland.
The UN special session on children is an unprecedented meeting of the UN General Assembly dedicated to children and young people around the world. It will bring together Government leaders and heads of state from, to date, 72 nations around the globe. It will also bring together non-governmental organisations, children's advocates and young people themselves at the United Nations in New York. Several leaders of civic society and the private sector, including Nelson Mandela and Bill Gates, have confirmed that they will participate.
As has been mentioned, the United Kingdom Government is leading a small delegation to the event. I am pleased that one of the two young people from the UK who will attend is here this evening. I add my congratulations and good wishes to Ellen Leaver.
In 1990, at the world summit for children, 71 heads of state and Government and other leaders signed the "World Declaration of the Survival, Protection and Development of Children" and adopted a plan of action to achieve a set of goals. Those goals are every bit as relevant today as they were then. Indeed, some would say that the need is even greater. The goals included:
improving living conditions for children and their chances of survival by increasing access to health services for women and children;
reducing the spread of preventable diseases;
creating more opportunities for education;
providing better sanitation and greater food supply; and
protecting children in danger."
The commitment to realising the world summit goals has helped to move child rights to a high place on the world's agenda, but it reflects on all nations at the beginning of the 21st century that some of the goals are so basic. It is important that the special session is taking place as a follow-up to the 1990 world summit, because we desperately need to maintain and increase momentum.
The Scottish Executive fully acknowledges the importance of the views of young people and we welcome the profile that the UN special session and the event organised by Save the Children give to the subject. Indeed, our debate is an important part of that. Cathy Jamieson will be speaking at Save the Children's "World Fit for Children" event and will meet some of the young people who have been involved in preparations leading up to the UN special session.
The special session will involve over 300 young people and is expected to produce a global agenda with a set of goals and plan for action devoted to ensuring three essential outcomes: the best possible start in life for all children, a good quality basic education for all children and opportunities for all children to have meaningful participation in their communities. The Executive and the many others who are involved in delivering services for children and young people are already working towards those outcomes in Scotland.
The Executive is committed to ensuring that improved outcomes for children and young people are at the heart of the services that are delivered in Scotland. That is why we have supported the Scottish youth summit, which engaged young people from throughout Scotland in direct debate and discussion, and why we are actively considering the best way to build on the success of the youth summit in future events by listening to the views of young people. It is also why we have given substantial financial and other support to the Scottish youth parliament and why we strongly support its development.
In June last year, with the Scottish youth parliament and Save the Children, we launched a practical toolkit on consultation with young people. We have advocated the toolkit's use across central Government and local government as well as in other organisations that work with young people in Scotland. We will actively monitor the toolkit's use across those bodies.
I emphasise my view that consulting young people, obtaining their views and then failing to act on that information is worse than ignoring their views. If expectations are raised by consultation, it is vital that action is taken. Engaging with young people but failing to respond to their views and their objectives for their local communities pays only lip service to the goals to which I have referred. There will be a full debate in Parliament next week on youth participation in communities.
The UN's special session will raise the profile of children's issues and provide the opportunity to review progress on those issues and plan for the future from a long-term, global perspective. However, children's issues must always be high on our agenda in Scotland and at the centre of everything we do. We must recognise the specific needs and views of children and young people in Scotland.
Last year, the action team on better integrated services for children published "For Scotland's children-Better integrated children's services." In that report, the action team reviewed current service provision and provided an action plan and recommendations for the future. In my view, some of what the report found is totally unacceptable in 21st century Scotland. We still have much to do.
The Cabinet sub-committee on children's services was formed following the publication of the action team's report. I have no doubt that some of the insights and damning indictments in the report were the reason for giving the issue such a high priority. The sub-committee is chaired by the First Minister and is taking forward better-integrated services for children.
I must thank Fiona McLeod for initiating a debate on such an important subject. We all want every young child and person in Scotland—and around the globe—to live a happy, healthy and contented life and to have the opportunity to reach their full potential. We still have a long way to go, but we must all work together to achieve that goal. I believe that Scotland has an important place in the global community in delivering on that.
Meeting closed at 19:33.