On this page you can search and filter the UN recommendations submitted to the UK
Government should: (a) Fund disabled people's organisations and involve them in planning and implementing all laws affecting disabled people (including...
Government should: Consider banning the physical punishment of children. Ensure it is banned in all educational and other institutions, and...
Government should: Strengthen laws in relation to forced marriage and female genital mutilation. Strengthen its legislative framework by including penal...
Government should: Make children’s rights the focus of climate change strategies and highlight the risks they face in the National...
Government should: Review British immigration laws and ensure they are in line with the CRC. Reviewing the laws on immigration...
Government should: Take further action to end child poverty, and align laws with the CRC. Increase efforts to eliminate child...
Government should: Take further action to end child poverty. Assess the impacts of welfare reform on children from disadvantaged families....
Government should: Ensure physical punishment is banned in all educational and other institutions, and in the care system. Ensure that...
Government should: Ban physical punishment in all settings, including the family. Prohibit corporal punishment in all settings, including the family...
Government should: Consider changing laws on the physical punishment of children. Reconsider its position on the legality of corporal punishment...
Government should: Ban the physical punishment of children to protect them from violence. Ban corporal punishment of children to ensure...
Government should: Ban all physical punishment of children, in line with the CRC. Take further actions in protecting the rights...
Government should: Tackle violence against women. Take further action to combat sexual exploitation and sexual crimes against children. Effectively fight...
Government should: Develop and put into practice joined-up strategies to combat child exploitation and abuse. Develop and implement comprehensive multisectoral...
Government should: Fully investigate all cases of sexual violence against children by high-level officials, and prosecute the perpetrators. Complete the...
UK Government actions In September 2021, the UK Government launched a consultation on reforms to the UK’s data protection regime,...
UK Government actions In September 2021, the UK Government published a new policy to support the needs of perinatal women...
UK Government actions In July 2021, the UK Government introduced a Nationality and Borders Bill with the stated aims of...
The implementation of ‘hostile environment’ immigration policies marked a reduction in human rights protections and court cases have found failures...
UK Government actions In September 2021, Public Health England published updated guidance on preventing the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) in...
The UK Government has committed to introducing a new Mental Health Bill and implementing new laws to prevent the use...
UK Government actions In July 2021, the UK Government published its new ‘Tackling violence against women and girls strategy’ for...
There have been important recent reforms to strengthen the policy and legal framework, and it will take time for their...
Government should: Take further action to tackle domestic violence. Take steps to protect children from the negative impacts of domestic...
Government should: Continue tackling discrimination and violence against women and girls. Continue efforts to combat discrimination on any ground and...
UK Government actions In July 2021, the UK Government published its National Disability Strategy, which made commitments to improve the...
Government should: Consider ending automatic life sentences for offenders aged under 18. Consider abolishing the mandatory imposition of life imprisonment...
Government should: Urgently make the CRC part of UK and devolved law. Speed up the adjustment of national legislation to...
Government should: Do more to tackle the sharp increase in hate-related crimes, especially those involving young people. Take appropriate measures...
Government should: Introduce policies to prevent trafficking in women and girls. Guarantee a fair trial to victims of trafficking. Adopt...
Government should: Put the victims at the heart of its strategy to combat human trafficking (especially of women and girls)....
Government should: Adopt a comprehensive strategy to combat trafficking in women and girls. Reinforce the National Referral Mechanism to identify...
Government should: Strengthen measures to combat human trafficking (specifically of women and girls), and to support and rehabilitate victims. Strengthen...
Government should: Monitor the implementation of the 2015 Modern Slavery Act, including its affect on combating trafficking in women and...
Government should: Continue combating human trafficking and protecting child victims. Continue strengthening the positive measures taken to combat the crime...
Government should: Do more to reduce violence and sexual exploitation against children. Take more measures to fight against sexual exploitation...
Government should: Put an end to life sentences for minors, in line with the CRC. Abolish the life sentence for...
Government should: Raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility to meet international standards. End automatic life sentences for offenders aged...
Government should: Combat violence against women and girls, in particular domestic violence. Combat violence against women and girls, in particular...
Government should: Consider changing the minimum age of criminal responsibility. Consider revising the minimum age of criminal responsibility...
Government should: Consider raising the age of criminal responsibility, in line with international standards. In line with the recommendations of...
Government should: Raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility, in line with international standards. Raise the minimum age of criminal...
Government should: Review the Immigration Act (2016) and put it in line with the CRC. Review the 2016 Immigration Act...
Government should: Like other European countries, limit the amount of time migrants and asylum seekers can be detained. Ensure children...
Government should: Align the UK Immigration Act 2016 with international human rights law, including the CRC. Improve on the United...
Government should: Change the law to help reunite child asylum seekers and refugees in the UK with their families. Reform...
Government should: Take action to ensure unaccompanied children who are refugees or resettled in the UK can be reunited with...
Government should: Develop strategies to end the poverty of about four million children, as highlighted in shadow reports to the...
Government should: Take a joined-up approach to preventing violence against women and girls, including harmful practices. Ensure a holistic approach...
The introduction of the Violence against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence (Wales) Act 2015 (the VAWDASV Act) and the...
Despite the implementation of wide-ranging reforms since 2014, children with special educational needs (SEN) and disabilities (SEND) still face barriers...
Government should: Make the CRC part of UK law. Integrate fully the principles and provisions of the Convention on the...
UK Government actions: The UK Government resumed the use of school exams in summer 2022, with exam boards instructed to...
UK Government actions In June 2021, the UK Government committed to raise the minimum age for people to marry in...
The UK Government has introduced some positive reforms in relation to family life, including action to tackle child marriage and...
UK Government actions In March 2021, regulations were passed to introduce a new ‘multi-channel approach to health assessments’ for a...
Several permanent welfare reforms introduced by the UK Government, including the two-child limit, have adversely affected the enjoyment of human...
UK Government actions: In September 2022, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy introduced the Retained EU Law (Revocation...
The Welsh Government has committed to strengthen the equality and human rights legal framework, including by considering the incorporation of...
The UK Government set out a number of actions to reduce health inequalities and improve outcomes in the NHS Long...
UK Government actions: In June 2022, the UK Government published a draft Mental Health Bill for pre-legislative scrutiny. This aims...
Policy reforms and increased investment in mental health services have improved access to support and treatment. However, this has occurred...
The Welsh Government has developed policy measures and provided investment to improve mental health outcomes. However, there are shortfalls in...
In England, measuring changes in attainment is difficult due to GCSE and A level reforms over recent years and the...
Policing in England and Wales has contributed to a regression in human rights protection for certain groups. Though there is...
Measuring changes in attainment is difficult due to the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on forms of assessment and...
UK Government actions: In September 2022, Department for Education (DfE) revised guidance on behaviour in schools and on suspensions and...
The UK Government has taken welcome steps to address gaps in the existing policy and legal framework regulating the use...
While the Welsh Government has updated its guidance on the procedures for school exclusion, there have been no significant legal...
The UK Government has taken important steps to eradicate, and enhance understanding of, modern slavery and trafficking, such as working...
UK Government actions: In July 2022, the Cabinet Office published its Annual Report on Major Projects 2021/22. It assigned the...
We welcome the reduction in the number of children in custody in recent years, a trend that accelerated following the...
The number of recorded hate crimes increased between March 2021 and March 2022, although data has been affected by improvements...
UK Government actions: In April 2022, the Elections Act gained Royal Assent. The stated purpose of the Act is to...
Women, ethnic minorities and disabled people remain under-represented in politics, and diversity data is inadequate, although the number of women...
UK Government actions In its March 2021 budget, the UK Government announced measures to address regional inequalities, including the Levelling...
UK Government actions In March 2021, the Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Act 2021 gained royal assent. It allows...
The proportion of disabled pupils attending special schools has been steadily increasing for several years. In response, the Welsh Government...
The Welsh Government has taken some positive policy and legislative steps, including a range of actions to address childhood adversity....
UK Government actions In July 2021, the UK Government published its health and disability green paper to explore how the...
Although rates of relative poverty have remained static for working-age adults, the number of children living in relative poverty and...
Wales has the highest levels of poverty in the UK, with no significant improvements in people’s outcomes over recent years....
Record NHS waiting lists and worsening waiting times before the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic have limited access to healthcare. There is...
There is evidence that certain groups experience persistent inequalities in accessing healthcare in Wales, but a lack of data separated...
Amid rising demand and funding constraints, more people were being declined care in the years prior to the coronavirus (COVID-19)...
There have been some welcome reforms to the policy and legal framework for social care in Wales in recent years,...
UK Government actions In April 2021, the UK Parliament passed the Overseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Act, first introduced...
UK Government actions In June 2021, Ofsted published the findings of a UK Government-commissioned review of sexual abuse in schools...
The UK Government has taken some policy and legislative steps to address aspects of violence, abuse and neglect, including its...
UK Government actions In October 2020, the UK Government updated the ‘headteachers’ standards’, which set baseline expectations for professional practice...
The Welsh Government has legislated to make it mandatory for all school children aged 5–16 to learn about sexual and...
While the introduction of compulsory relationships and sex education (RSE) may create further opportunities for schools to teach children about...
There have been a number of positive legislative and policy changes to increase education and awareness of the UN Convention...
UK Government actions In July 2021, the UK Government published a revised draft of its statutory guidance for schools, ‘Keeping...
The UK Government’s new relationships and sex education (RSE) and health education guidance is welcome, as is action taken in...
The Welsh Government has legislated to make relationships and sexuality education a statutory component of the new curriculum – ensuring...
UK Government actions In March 2021, the census for England and Wales was carried out, on a ‘digital-first’ basis. The...
The UK Government has introduced various measures to improve the collection of equality data, with specific action to improve ethnicity...
The Welsh Government publishes and analyses some data by protected characteristic, although significant data gaps remain. Overall data gaps and...
The UK Government has introduced legislation aimed at tackling terrorism, following a number of terrorist incidents. While the UK Government...
Funding cuts to the public health grant have affected sexual and reproductive health budgets, access to services across England varies,...
Government should: Put into practice the UN's previous recommendation on captured child soldiers for all under 18s: Ensure children can...
Government should: Coordinate and monitor how the CRC is put into practice at the local and national level. Establish effective...
Government should: Legally protect people from multiple and intersectional discrimination, including on the grounds of migrant, refugee or other status....
Government should: (a) Do more to encourage girls to study non-traditional subjects and courses in science, technology, engineering and mathematics;...
Government should: (a) Ensure there is sufficient housing (especially social housing), particularly for the most disadvantaged groups, including those on...
Government should: Develop a national strategy on the right to adequate food. Promote healthy diets, including supporting breastfeeding. Introduce higher...
Government should: Reduce achievement gaps in education, particularly among children from low income families. Take further action to avoid segregating...
Government should: Review its reservations to articles 10 (on separating under 18s in detention from adults), 14 (on free legal...
Government should: (a) Raise the age of criminal responsibility to meet international standards. Follow international standards for juvenile justice. (b)...
Government should: (a) Strengthen the capacity of the Government Equalities Office so that it can provide national leadership on women's...
Government should: Fully implement its laws on female genital mutilation (FGM) and take further measures to prosecute people who carry...
Government should: (a) Adopt in law the internationally agreed definition of human trafficking, as set out in the Palermo Protocol;...
Government should: (a) Ensure that vulnerable women can access employment opportunities, housing and social security so they don't need to...
Government should: (a) Ensure that affordable and accessible childcare is available throughout the UK, particularly in Northern Ireland. (b) Consider...
Government should: Provide information on the impact of the national strategy on gender-based violence (particularly with regard to violence against...
Government should: (a) Ensure that women in abusive situations can receive payments under Universal Credit independent of their partners. (b)...
Government should: (a) Ensure the law provides for 'no-fault' divorce and introduce a requirement that all religious marriages, including Islamic...
Government should: (a) Ensure that all cases of violence, including sexual assault, against children in detention are investigated quickly and...
Government should: Raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility. Adapt the youth justice system in line with advice issued by...
Government should: Ensure that the use of electrical discharge weapons (tasers) follows the principles of necessity, subsidiarity, proportionality, advance warning...
Government should: (a) Promptly investigate cases of paramilitary violence, including against children, in Northern Ireland. Ensure that perpetrators are prosecuted...
Government should: (a) Take urgent steps to provide redress, including compensation and rehabilitation, for victims identified by the Historical Institution...
Government should: (a) Improve efforts to investigate claims of human trafficking, prosecute perpetrators and ensure that victims obtain compensation. Consider...
Government should: (a) Ensure that the parents or guardians of intersex children receive impartial counselling and psychological and social support....
Government should: Submit an update to the UN, by 17 May 2020, on progress made in implementing the Committee against...
Government should: In line with UN advice on poverty and the ICESCR, guarantee support to all those living in (or...
Government should: (a) Review conditions attached to social security benefits. Reverse the cuts introduced by the Welfare Reform Act 2012...
Government should: Raise the minimum age of marriage to 18 years across all devolved administrations and overseas territories. The Committee...
Government should: Withdraw all reservations to the CRC (regarding the applicability of article 22 to the Cayman Islands, article 32...
Government should: Embed the rights of disabled women and girls into disability and gender equality policies. Fully consult on this...
Government should: Consult with disabled children's organisations to develop and put into practice policies for: (a) Tackling high poverty levels...
Government should: (a) End the use of restraint for reasons relating to disability. Prevent the use of Tasers against disabled...
Government should: work with disabled people's organisations to: (a) Ensure disabled people (particularly women, children, intersex people and older people)...
Government should: Reverse all laws and practices allowing any form of forced medical care or surgery. Ensure disabled people (especially...
Government should: Work with disabled people's organisations to: (a) Raise legal standards for making digital information services accessible for all....
Government should: (a) Ensure disabled parents get the support they need to look after their children, and that disability is...
Government should: Withdraw its reservation to CRPD article 24 (2) (a) and (b) on the right to inclusive education. The...
Government should: Consult disabled people's organisations to: (a) Ensure all disabled children get an inclusive education in their own communities....
Government should: Increase the availability of high-quality data disaggregated by: income, sex, age, gender, race, ethnic origin, migrant, asylum-seeking and...
Government should: (a) Align UK laws with the CRC so it can be enforced in UK courts and people can...
Government should: Extend the national living wage to under 25s. Set it at a level which provides workers and their...
Government should: (a) Update and implement the UK-wide 'Working Together, Achieving More' strategy (2009) to include all rights in the...
Government should: Ensure proper funding, clear timelines and monitoring of the 'Working Together, Achieving More', and 'Programme for Children and...
Government should: (a) Make it compulsory to assess the impact on children's rights when developing laws and policies affecting children...
Government should: (a) Set up statutory bodies with sufficient authority in each of the devolved administrations and overseas territories to...
Government should: Invest all available resources to make children’s rights a reality for every child across the UK, focusing especially...
Government should: The Northern Ireland Government should adopt a child rights indicator framework which should cover all CRC rights, and...
Government should: (a) Strengthen the independence of Children’s Commissioners in line with the Paris Principles and UN advice on the...
Government should: Ensure its international development cooperation is aimed at strengthening the right to free compulsory primary education for all....
Government should: Use all available resources to make economic, social and cultural rights a reality for everyone. In line with...
Government should: Review its employment policies to address the root causes of unemployment. Develop an action plan focusing specifically on...
Government should: (a) Revise the National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights to make businesses consider their impact on...
Government should: (a) Consider expanding the law to protect all under 18s from age-based discrimination. (b) Regularly review the use...
Government should: Ratify the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse ('Lanzarote...
Government should: Work with the Council of Europe to make the CRC and other human rights treaties a reality at...
Government should: (a) End child poverty and ensure accountability (including through concrete targets). Monitor and report results. (b) Put children...
Government should: (a) Take action to reduce the impact of social background or disabilities on children's achievements in school. Guarantee...
Government should: (a) In line with UN advice on children's right to rest, leisure, play and cultural life, ensure all...
Government should: Consider UN advice on unaccompanied and separated children and: (a) Collect and publish data on the number of...
Government should: Align the UK's juvenile justice systems in line with UN advice and: (a) Increase the age of criminal...
Government should: Always video record interviews with child victims/witnesses during investigation. Permit the interviews as evidence in court. The Committee...
Government should: (a) Ensure all under 18s are protected from prostitution, pornography and trafficking. Ensure UK laws can also be...
Government should: (a) Consider raising the UK army minimum recruitment age to 18. (b) Prevent the targeting and recruitment of...
Government should: Ratify the Optional Protocol to the CRC on a complaints procedure to allow children who feel their rights...
Government should: Ratify the remaining core human rights treaties: the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All...
Government should: Take steps to put into practice these recommendations. Make future state reports to the UN available in all...
Government should: (a) Collect data on child nutrition (including on breastfeeding and weight problems) to identify the causes of food...
Government should: Submit the UK's next report to the UN by 14 January 2022. The Committee invites the State party...
Government should: Update its common core document to the UN The Committee also invites the State party to submit an...
Government should: Ratify the Optional Protocols to ICESCR and the CRC on complaints procedures; and the International Convention for the...
Government should: Approve the Optional Protocol to the CRC on a complaints procedure. Ratify the third optional protocol to the...
Government should: Consider ratifying the Optional Protocol to the CRC on a complaints procedure. Consider the ratification of the Optional...
Government should: Consider ratifying the Optional Protocol to the CRC on a complaints procedure. In order to further strengthen the...
Government should: Ratify the Optional Protocol to the CRC on a complaints procedure. Ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention...
Government should: Consider ratifying the Optional Protocol to the CRC on a complaints procedure. Consider ratifying the Optional Protocol to...
Government should: (a) Make laws and adequately fund steps to cut air pollution. (b) Make children’s rights the focus of...
Government should: (a) Put in place a comprehensive sexual and reproductive health policy for adolescents, focusing on improving equality and...
Government should: Set a legal time limit for immigration detention. Ensure detention is used only as a last resort, and...
Government should consider UN advice on children's right to freedom from all forms of violence and: (a) Ban the use...
Government should: Urgently tackle the ‘intolerance of childhood’ and negative public attitudes towards children, especially teenagers, in society and the...
Government should: End discriminatory laws in overseas territories against children who are 'non-belongers', including migrant children, and children born out...
Government should: (a) Ensure children's best interests are prioritised in all policies, laws and legal proceedings affecting them. Consider UN...
Government should: (a) Tackle the root causes of infant and child mortality, including deprivation and inequality. (b) Carry out automatic,...
Government should: (a) Systematically and meaningfully involve children in decision making, both locally and nationally, in all matters relating to...
Government should: Consult children on the voting age. If lowered, strengthen human rights education and early awareness of rights and...
Government should: Revise local laws and the British Nationality Act in overseas territories to secure migrant children's right to a...
Government should: Abolish any legal obligation to attend collective worship in state-funded schools. Guarantee children's right to freely decide whether...
Government should: Guarantee children’s right to freedom of movement and peaceful assembly by: (a) Banning the use of acoustic devices...
Government should: (a) Ban non-statutory stop-and-search checks against children. (b) Ensure statutory stop-and-search checks are proportionate (considering the age and...
Government should: (a) In line with UN advice, urgently ban physical punishment in the family. (b) Ensure that physical punishment...
Government should: (a) Collect and publish data on psychotropic drugs (Ritalin, Concerta etc.) prescribed to children. (b) Ensure drugs are...
Government should: (a) Revise the Children and Young Persons Act (1933) to protect all under 18s from abuse and neglect...
Government should: (a) Collect and publish disaggregated data on child exploitation and abuse. Make reporting on child exploitation and abuse...
Government should: (a) In line with UN advice on harmful practices, ensure that marriage of 16 and 17-year-olds is based...
Government should: (a) Tackle bullying and violence in schools, through teaching human rights, building respect for diversity and improving conflict-resolution...
Government should: Assess the impact on children's rights of funding cuts for childcare and family support. Review family support policies...
Government should ensure poverty is never the sole reason for removing a child from parental care, consider UN advice on...
Government should: (a) Ensure child protection authorities are informed when a parent is imprisoned, to prevent children being left unattended....
Government should: Adopt a human rights-based approach to disability, set up a strategy for the inclusion of disabled children in...
Government should: Develop strategies on improving child health in line with UN advice on children's right to health and: (a)...
Government should: (a) Collect data on child mental health, paying particular attention to children in vulnerable situations. (b) Adequately fund...
There have been changes to the policy and legal framework to increase political participation and improve the diversity of political...
