We don’t need no reservation!

Don’t sing it – write it down and send it to the Home Office!

In January the Home Secretary agreed to review UK’s reservation on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child on immigration and nationality and to ratify the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking. This progress was possible thanks to your actions. 104 people wrote to their Member of Parliament by January 2008.

Although this progress is encouraging, we have not yet succeeded in our calls. The government reviewed its reservation in 2004 and decided to keep it.

Now you have a great opportunity to influence the outcome of the current government review of the reservation on the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Home Office is currently holding a consultation on a document called Code of Practice for Keeping Children Safe from Harm. The last question in that consultation refers to the reservation and asks if it should be removed.

The deadline for responses is 25 April but please respond sooner rather than later by clicking on this link:
http://voiceyourviews.net/eactivist/vyv.v?v=2121:561:15490:  

What does the reservation say?
“The United Kingdom reserves the right to apply such legislation, in so far as it relates to the entry into, stay in and departure from the United Kingdom of those who do not have the right under the law of the United Kingdom to enter and remain in the United Kingdom, and to the acquisition and possession of citizenship, as it may deem necessary from time to time.”

We are asking you to tell the government clearly and loudly that the reservation should go.

You can do that by responding to the Home Office consultation. We give you the main reasons why the reservation should go. We also give you a tool which will allow you to respond easily and quickly.

Here are the reasons why the reservation should be lifted:

The reservation discriminates against children who are not UK citizens and trafficked children are adversely affected by it. By discriminating against asylum-seeking children, the reservation undermines efforts to combat child trafficking.

Trafficked children are not identified as victims of trafficking early enough, not even when they apply for asylum and are placed in local authority care. When they are placed in care, they are often given the type of care that is cheapest, not the care they actually need. One clear example of discriminatory treatment of trafficked children in the asylum system is the fact that under current arrangements the Home Office pays local authorities significantly less money for the care of children over 16. As a result, they can’t get the services they need. The placements of local children over 16 who are in care are not funded by the Home Office and they can receive the services they need on the basis of the assessment of their needs.

Because of the reservation, the decisions about their future are made without regard to their best interests. For example, the Home Office plans to start forced returns of children under 18, whose asylum claims have been turned down. Among them there will be trafficked children who have not been identified as victims of trafficking and they will be forced to return, in some cases, to their traffickers.

The reservation is incompatible with the Convention on the Rights of the Child

The Committee on the Rights of the Child concluded in its observations to the UK’s first report that ‘the reservation relating to the application of the Nationality and Immigration Act does not appear to be compatible with the principles and provisions of the Convention’.

The reservation is not needed to maintain effective immigration control

The UK Government has expressed concern that without the reservation ‘the interpretation of the Convention might come into conflict with the UK’s own domestic legislation on immigration’. At the same time it claims that immigration laws are fully compatible with the Convention on the Rights of the Child and already ensure that vulnerable children have ‘the protection of law’. This is clearly a contradiction as the reservation would not be needed if this were the case. The Joint Committee on Human Rights in the UK Parliament has concluded that ‘the Government will be able to withdraw the Reservation without detriment to existing policy choices in respect of the care and support of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.’

These reasons form the basis for our campaign action. It is straightforward and easy to do. You can say NO to the reservation today. Just click here:
http://voiceyourviews.net/eactivist/vyv.v?v=2121:561:15490: