Looking through the lens of childhood, throughout the world and at home

One key focus of the dispute resolution aspect of practice at Kent and Surrey Family Resolution is to sustain and safeguard the voice and needs of children whose parents or carers may be separating or divorcing. We aim to create a solution in each case which is fair, inclusive, future-oriented, just and acceptable to all of those involved. This includes the needs and wishes of children involved as couples split and family circumstances and arrangements change.

Some of these issues are also represented by the UNICEF Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was put into place thirty years ago this month. Unicef has published a report to coincide with this anniversary. The report celebrates what has been achieved over the past thirty years and goes on to outline a selected set of issues that need urgent attention worldwide.

As the report highlights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child was implemented at a moment of rapid global change: marked by the end of apartheid, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the birth of the World Wide Web. To coincide with the anniversary, there is a wealth of literature, opinion and reviews as to what has been achieved, where resources must be focussed and what remains to be done.

You can read the report online at: https://www.unicef.org/media/62371/file/Convention-rights-child-at-crossroads-2019.pdf

References *For Every Child, Every Right: The Convention on the Rights of the Child at a crossroads. New York: United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 2019.