Scottish Government’s UNCRC Incorporation Consultation: Options

As party to the UNCRC since 1991 the UK has a legal obligation to ensure that all domestic legislation is compatible with the international agreement, yet the UK has done little to collectively make children’s rights a priority through legislation. Thus, devolved UK nations, including Scotland, have individually made political and legal commitments to further entrench children’s rights in line with the UNCRC, including the First Minister’s pledge to incorporate the UNCRC into Scots law. This pledge set in motion variable activities to determine what this means and how best this is to be achieved in Scotland. To that end, in May 2019 Scottish Government opened a consultation on the best model for incorporation of the UNCRC. A key difficulty is that very few law and policymakers, not to mention the general public, have ever had the opportunity to go through the technicalities of incorporating a human rights treaty into national law. This blog explores the options offered in the consultation paper.