INTRODUCTION

As a devolved nation within the United Kingdom (UK), Scotland has taken an increasingly leading role in entrenching children’s rights. Though the UK ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (hereinafter CRC or ‘the Convention’) in 1991 and subsequently ratified its first two Optional Protocols, it has done little to implement these rights into its national legal frameworks. The strongest children’s rights protections in the UK have been entrenched predominantly through efforts in the devolved nations, including Scotland. As a result of successive updates to its devolution settlement, Scotland is able to legislate and develop children’s rights through laws and policies distinct from the UK, the actual state party to the Convention.

Children’s rights have long featured in Scottish politics and have been a particular focus of the Scottish National Party’s (SNP) platform since it became the majority governing party in 2011. Of the almost 5.5 million people in Scotland, just over 1 million meet the CRC definition of a child as individuals aged 0–17. In April 2019, the leader of the Scottish Government, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, pledged that the government would incorporate the CRC into national law during the parliamentary term, ending in March 2021. As this volume goes to print, the Scottish Parliament has done its part to realise this pledge, passing the United Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill on 16 March 2021. The Bill has been referred to the Supreme Court by the Attorney General and the Advocate General for Scotland to test whether it is within the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament. The outcome of this challenge is not yet known. This chapter explores the way in which this pledge and previous Scottish implementation efforts have supported a commitment to children’s rights. It begins with a brief overview of the legal settlement between the Scottish and UK Governments, and the growing attention on children’s rights following devolution. This is followed by an overview of key legal and non-legal measures implementing various aspects of the CRC in Scotland, including points of tension. How these measures have impacted judicial protection of children’s rights will then reveal the gaps that persist in Scots law.