Peter Newell
1993

£10.50 + p&p, 248 pp
ISBN 978 0 903319 64 5
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An apparently unending series of scandals involving serious abuse of children and young people has hit the headlines in the last few years. Despite major reforms in children’s law, and a succession of judicial and other inquiry reports, it is clear that children are not adequately protected in our society. The cases have involved abuse, often long-term, of children living at home, and in many different institutions, in the child care, health, education and penal systems.

The Gulbenkian Foundation commissioned a Working Group of experts to examine the reforms needed to provide an effective framework for the protection of children and young people wherever they spend significant periods of their lives.

The report includes a detailed commentary on existing protection, which reveals inexcusable inconsistencies and gaps. It makes recommendations, based on principles in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, to improve protection for children in all settings, and above all to change attitudes to ensure that it is no longer legally or socially accepted to deliberately hurt children as a form of punishment or treatment.

Peter Newell chairs the council of the Children’s Rights Alliance for England and is coordinator of EPOCH – End Physical Punishment of Children. He also works as a consultant for UNICEF on implementing the Convention on the Rights of the Child and is Adviser to the European Network of Ombudspeople for Children.