RIGHTS OF THE CHILD CONFERENCE

SWANSEA UNIVERSITY

Children's Rights: From 20th Century Visions to 21st Century Implementation?

Friday 19 September 2008

The Conference will bring together leading international experts who can reflect on the driving forces behind the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the long process leading to its adoption. Their presentations will revisit contemporary political and academic debate, the concepts and the visions eventually reflected in the text of the Convention and will consider how far expectations and aspirations as to its implementation have been fulfilled.

Within this general theme, plenary speakers will present papers drawing on selected areas of their expertise and experience. In workshops there will be an opportunity for delegates to participate in discussion connecting the general theme and some of the issues addressed in the plenary papers to the experience of implementation at different levels of governance. This may include international, national, regional and local levels and comparative experience from different countries throughout the world. A special focus will be on developments in Wales, taking into account the Welsh Assembly Government’s commitment to the Convention as a framework for its policies on children and young people, the pioneering role of the Children’s Commissioner for Wales as the first of the UK’s four children’s commissioners, the experience of Funky Dragon - the Children and Young People’s Assembly for Wales – and the work of the Wales Monitoring Group for the UNCRC.

This Conference is timely for two important reasons. Firstly, as the UNCRC approaches the end of its second decade in operation, it is apt to reflect on the practices and themes that have emerged and how these connect to the visions and aspirations at the time of the negotiation and conclusion of the text. Secondly, it is a time when the UK Government is finalising its third and fourth national reports to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, incorporating the contributions from devolved governments within the UK, and when the non-governmental reports have recently been prepared, published and submitted to the UN Committee as part of the monitoring process. The Conference and its published proceedings will contribute to further discussion in both academic and political spheres, will provide a valuable resource for further action on implementation in the future and will add to a growing comparative literature on the impact of the UNCRC in diverse legal and political systems.

The Conference will be of special interest to all concerned with children’s rights and implementation in policy and practice, including academics, practitioners and policy advisers.