Prime Minister Tony Blair was under pressure this week to follow the Welsh, Northern Ireland and Scottish assemblies and appoint a children’s commissioner for England, writes Biddy Passmore.
The call came in a highly critical report on the Government’s record by the United Nations’ children’s rights committee, a 10-member group of child welfare experts.
It was supported by a Unicef poll in which more than 90 per cent of 350 young people in the UK said they needed a commissioner to safeguard their rights.
Cherie Booth QC, human rights lawyer and wife of Tony Blair, recently described the Government as “half-hearted” about children’s rights. It should set up a new national human rights organisation of which the children’s commissioner would form part, she said.
