The purpose of this guidance, issued by the Scottish Government, is to provide information and resources to support public authorities and other organisations to implement a children’s human rights approach. This may also assist public authorities to meet their current duties under the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 and to prepare for their duties under section 6 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation)(Scotland) Act, which would place a duty on public authorities not to act incompatibly with the ‘UNCRC requirements’ as defined by section 1 of the Act.

The content of the guidance consists of an introduction to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), an introduction to the UNCRC (Incorporation)(Scotland) Bill, methods to embed children’s human rights approaches in practice and links to other relevant policy areas.

The aims of this guidance are to:

• Raise awareness of the ambition for children’s human rights in Scotland and set out the Scottish Government’s actions to implement the UNCRC to date.
• Provide an update on the UNCRC (Incorporation)(Scotland) Bill.
• Provide information and resources to support you to take a children’s human rights approach to planning and delivery of services.
• Clarify links between the UNCRC, key policies and existing Scottish legislation.
• Share relevant case studies on taking a children’s human rights approach.

Read the guidance