By Dipankar De Sarkar,IANS,
London : Britain is to sign the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child after holding out over fears about child migrants and asylum seekers, according to reports Friday.
Britain has refused to sign the convention for 17 years, and instead exercised an opt-out that has allowed it to lock up child migrants and asylum seekers for weeks or months without judicial scrutiny.
The UN convention obliges nations to put the best interests of a child first but Britain has argued since 1991 that immigration control must take priority over child rights.
However, Britain is expected to be questioned next week in Geneva, where the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child is meeting until Oct 3 to evaluate progress, the BBC reported.
The announcement comes a day after the European human rights commissioner criticised Britain over its migrant and refugee child rights record and the leader of a Welsh watchdog said he will go public with his criticisms at the Geneva meetings.
Keith Towler, Children’s Commissioner for the province of Wales, condemned what he called the “shocking” treatment of asylum seekers’ children in Britain.
“I am travelling to Geneva on Monday to report to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. A total of 31 civil servants are going – three from Wales – to tell the committee how well we are doing in the UK on meeting the UN convention on the rights of the child. I cannot wait to have my say. My hope, however, is that in five years’ time, when we are reporting again on our progress, that I am not saying the same thing,” Towler said Thursday.
Also Thursday, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights Thomas Hammarberg urged Britain to withdraw as soon as possible the “immigration reservation” to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Britain announced a review of the immigration opt-out in January as part of its planned ratification this year of the European convention on human trafficking.
At the time, the non-government Refugee Council chief executive Donna Covey said: “Children who are the subject of immigration control are often among the most vulnerable, some here without their parents or anyone to look after them. The reservation is unnecessary and sends out the wrong message.”
In June 2007, a report by the government’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre revealed 183 suspected child trafficking victims had gone missing from care during an 18-month period. They included children from China, Nigeria, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Eritrea.
The new government move is expected to go down well at next week’s conference of the Labour party, where Prime Minister Gordon Brown will try to re-establish his authority over the ruling party.