Rights for children 'must top agenda'

The new Government should appoint a Children's Rights Commissioner for England to act as an independent champion for all children, according to a report by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. In the report, The UK Review of Effective Government Structures for Children 2001, which was published shortly before the election, the charity described as 'erratic' the Government's commitment to children's human rights in its domestic policies since 1997. It noted that while Wales had appointed a children's commissioner, the Northern Ireland Assembly had made a commitment to establish the role and a committee of the Scottish Parliament was consulting on the...