While making no explicit reference to children and young people from forces communities, all its provisions apply to them as a group who experience a greater risk of their rights not being promoted.
Following the incorporation of UNCRC, we published our children’s rights report, titled, ‘It’s not just their job, it’s our whole lives’.
The report outlines how the rights of children and young people from armed forces communities are affected across the three categories of protection, provision, and participation.
In our final article, we take a look at participation rights.
The UNCRC gives children rights to participation.
These rights include:
Article 12: Right to have the views heard and taken seriously.
Articles 13 and 17: Access to information.
Article 15: Freedom of association.
Article 31: Right to play.
Key to the right to participation is access to justice when their rights are breached. For this to happen, children must know all their rights per Article 42.
Children and young people from forces families feel unheard by decision-makers due to the scale of state-led decision-making that determines so much of their childhood.
Concerns around security can mean there is a disconnect between the information that children from forces families want, the information given by the MOD to their non-serving parent and what their parents choose to share with them.
FamCAS data found that 62% of families felt that they did not receive information from the MOD often enough, while 55% said policies aimed at them were not communicated effectively by the services (1).
Due to the nature of the serving parent’s job, there is a balance to be struck between national security and the rights of children to have information.
Without the latter, it can be hard for a child to form an opinion and it can be easier for an adult to dismiss their view as not being based on all the information.
Life in a forces family can significantly impact the ability of children and young people to maintain friendships and associations, continue the leisure activities of their choice, and access the play and rest they need to develop.
To mitigate this, children from forces families should be supported to maintain hobbies, interests, and friendships, whether that be through the provision of transport or funding for activities, or help to maintain digital connections.
Social and mass media pose challenges as they provide easy, instant access to information about conflicts and situations to which a parent may be deployed.
Research from the United States of America indicates that this can exacerbate common stressors experienced by service children (2).
The decision by serving personnel to leave the armed forces affects the whole family (3). All members may need to think differently about housing, health, education, and finances.
For children, moving to civilian life can result in further disruption to their childhood and friendships, such as through another house and school move.
There is a lack of information for the non-serving members of the family, despite children and young people experiencing the same feelings and barriers as their parents during this transition (4).
References:
(1) – Ministry of Defence(2023) – Tri-services Families Continuous Attitudes Survey, page 18.
(2) – Godier, McBard, Wood, and Fossey (2021) The Impact of Service Life on the Military Child: The Overlooked Casualties of Conflict, update and review, page 45.
(3) – Selous, Walker, and Misca (2020) Living in our Shoes: Understanding the Needs of UK Armed Forces Families.
(4 ) – Children’s Commissioner (2018) Kin and Country: Growing up as a forces Child.
Key to children’s right to participate is their ability to access justice when their rights are not upheld.
To ensure children and young people are able to access justice, they, and the adults who support and care for them, need to be able to recognise when their rights have been breached.
Child-friendly complaints procedures must be developed across all areas identified in this report.
Find out more about protection rights, UNCRC as well as our rights report and recommendations via the following downloads.
Full report Executive summary Recommendation summary