To ask Her Majesty's Government for a report from their Permanent Representative to the United Nations on how governments are responding to the statement by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child's statement on the physical, emotional and psychological effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on children, published on 8 April.
Answered on
18 May 2020
The UK Government is concerned that COVID-19 and measures taken to tackle it could have a disproportionate impact on marginalised and vulnerable groups, and is clear that measures taken to tackle the crisis must be designed to mitigate, rather than contribute to, this. We are working with international partners to ensure that child protection is integrated into a comprehensive response to COVID-19 that supports those groups who will be hit the hardest and are often with limited or no state protection. We welcome the statement made by the Chairpersons of the 10 UN Treaty Bodies on 24 March calling for a human rights approach in fighting COVID-19 and in the subsequent guidance provided by other Treaty Bodies, such as the Committee on the Rights of the Child. In negotiations in Geneva on a draft Human Rights Council Presidential statement on human rights and COVID-19, the UK has supported specific mention of children's rights, and proposed additional language highlighting the need to consider the particular situation of women and girls, and the role they can play in the response. A number of other countries have also proposed adding strengthened wording on children's rights, reflecting many of the concerns raised in the statement by the Committee on the Rights of the Child.