Non-governmental organisations
The Wales UNCRC Monitoring Group is a national alliance of non-governmental and academic agencies convened and chaired by Save the Children's Wales programme. The Head of Save the Children Wales is the Chair of the group, and the Children's Rights and Policy Officer for Save the Children coordinates the work of the group. The group is tasked with monitoring and promoting the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in Wales.
The Wales UNCRC Monitoring Group membership includes: Action for Children, Aberystwyth University Centre of Legal Affairs, Barnardos Cymru, Cardiff University Department of Child Health, Children in Wales, Funky Dragon, Nacro Cymru, NCH, NSPCC Cymru, Save the Children Wales (Chair), and Swansea University School of Law. Observers: Children's Commissioner Office for Wales, Equality and Human Rights Commission, Welsh Assembly Government, Welsh Local Government Association, Children and Young People’s Partnership Support Unit.
The Wales UNCRC Monitoring Group was established in July 2002 just prior to the hearing of the UK Government's 2nd periodic report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva. The Convention on the Rights of the Child is the only international human rights treaty that expressly gives a role to non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in monitoring the implementation of the Convention (under Article 45a of the UNCRC).
The Monitoring Group has increased in size and strength since this 2002, resulting in an increasing engagement of NGOs and academic institutions in developing their understanding and other partners' understanding of the importance of the UNCRC. It has also developed an important constructive yet critical collective voice that monitors the Welsh Assembly Government and UK Government’s obligation to realise the rights of children.
As part of the monitoring process to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, the Group wrote an interim report in 2006 called Righting the wrongs: the reality of children's rights in Wales. This was the first and most extensive report on the state of children's rights in Wales and was launched at an oversubscribed conference in Swansea's Dylan Thomas Centre in January 2006.
In 2007, the Group wrote Stop, look, listen: the road to realising children's rights, which is the Wales NGO Alternative report that was submitted to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child as part of the UK State party reporting process.
For more information on the work of the group go to UNCRC Monitoring Group.