Ex ante children’s rights impact assessment of economic policy

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on ex ante Child Rights Impact Assessment (CRIA) as a sub-set of Human Rights Impact Assessment (HRIA). CRIA is recommended by the Committee on the Rights of the Child to predict the likely impact of proposals for legislation or policy on children’s rights guaranteed by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. While ex post evaluation of outcomes is also recommended, the Committee emphasises the importance of prospective assessment to help ensure that legislation, policy and delivery of government programmes respect children’s rights. This article will demonstrate why CRIA is suitable to predict the likely impact of proposals for economic policy on the human rights of children. It discusses core elements of CRIA procedure and examines CRIA in practice, drawing on experience in seven states where the assessment has been introduced at some level of government: Belgium, Bosnia–Herzegovina, Canada, Ireland, Sweden, New Zealand and the UK. This will provide insights into methodological approaches as well as challenges likely to affect CRIA of economic programmes. The core elements of CRIA and HRIA procedure are comparable, and so the article contributes to better understanding HRIA of economic policy generally.

KEYWORDS:

• Children’s rights
• impact assessment
• CRIA
• economic reforms
• budget analysis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributor

Simon Hoffman is Professor of International Human Rights Law and Co-director of Observatory on Human Rights of Children.

Notes

1 Human Rights Council, Guiding Principles on Human Rights Impact Assessments of Economic Reforms, A/HRC/40/57 (2019), Summary, Principle 17 and paras 18(4) and 18(5).

2 Ibid., Principle 18.

3 Article 1 CRC, defines a child as ‘every human being below the age of eighteen years unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier’.

4 UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, General Comment No. 5, General Measures of Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, CRC/GC/2003/5 (2003), para. 45. Although ex post impact assessment is often regarded as exclusively prospective and has been described as ‘surveillance’ or ‘monitoring’: J. Kemm, ‘Perspectives on Health Impact Assessment’, Bulletin of the World Health Organization 81, no. 6 (2003): 387. In particular, in policy fields where impact assessment is well established: G. MacNaughton, ‘Human Rights Impact Assessment: A Method for Healthy Policymaking’, Health and Human Rights Journal 17, no. 1, June 2015, https://www.hhrjournal.org/2015/04/human-rights-impact-assessment-a-method-for-healthy-policymaking/ (accessed 10 October 2020); S. Jay and others, ‘Environmental Impact Assessment: Retrospect and Prospect’, Environmental Impact Assessment Review 27, no. 4 (2007): 287–300. See also International Association for Impact Assessment, What is Impact Assessment, https://www.iaia.org/uploads/pdf/What_is_IA_web.pdf (accessed 17 April 2020).

5 UN Committee, General Comment No. 5, para. 34; UNICEF Canada, Child Rights Impact Assessment, The Fundamentals (Toronto: UNICEF Canada, 2014); Eurochild, Applying the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights to Children’s Rights in the EU (Brussels: Eurochild, 2015), 17.

6 With the exception of the United States of America.

7 L. Payne, Child Rights Impact Assessment (CRIA): A Review of Comparative Practice Across the UK (London: UNICEF-UK, 2017); New Brunswick Child and Youth Advocate, Child Rights Impact Assessment: A Primer for New Brunswick (New Brunswick: Fredericton, 2016); UNICEF Canada, Child Rights Impact Assessment, The Fundamentals (Toronto: UNICEF Canada, 2014); L. Payne, ‘A Children’s Government in England and Child Impact Assessment’, Children and Society 470 (2007): 21. K. L. Paton and G. Munro, Child’s Rights Impact Assessments: The SCCYP Model (Edinburgh: SCCYP, 2006); C. Corrigan, ‘Child Impact Statements: Protecting Children’s Interest in Policy and Provision?’, Journal of Children’s Services 2, no. 4 (2007): 30–42.

8 L. Lundy and others, The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, A Study of Legal Implementation in 12 Countries (London: UNICEF-UK, 2012), 24; U. Kilkelly, ‘Operationalising Children's Rights: Lessons from Research’, Journal of Children’s Services 1, no. 4 (2006): 41.

9 UN Committee, General Comment No. 5, para. 45; L. Payne, Child Impact Statements 1998/99: The Next Stage in Child-Proofing UK Parliamentary Bills (London: National Children’s Bureau, 2000), 11; Corrigan, ‘Child Impact Statements’, 38.

10 N. Mason and K. Hanna, Undertaking Child Impact Assessments in Aotearoa New Zealand Local Authorities: Evidence, Practice, Ideas (Auckland: IPP, AUT University, 2009), 4.

11 UN Committee, General Comment No. 5, paras 45 and 46; UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, General Comment No. 14, On the Right of the Child to Have His or Her Best Interests Taken as a Primary Consideration, CRC/GC/C/14 (2013), para. 99.

12 UN Committee, General Comment No. 5, para. 45; UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, General Comment No. 19, On Public Budgeting for the Realization of Children’s Rights, CRC/C/GC19 (2016), paras 18 and 27.

13 Mason and Hanna, Undertaking Child Impact Assessments, 7; Centre for Economic and Social Rights, Assessing Austerity, Monitoring the Human Rights Impacts of Fiscal Consolidation (2018); B. Cantillon and others, Children of Austerity, Impact of the Great Recession on Child Poverty in Rich Countries (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017), https://www.cesr.org/sites/default/files/Austerity-Report-Online2018.FINAL_.pdf (accessed 17 April 2020).

14 G. Lansdown, Promoting Children’s Participation in Democratic Decision Making (Florence: Innocenti Research Centre, 2001), 4; B. Byrne and L. Lundy, ‘Reconciling Children’s Policy and Children’s Rights: Barriers to Effective Government Delivery’, Children and Society 29, no. 4 (2015): 266–276; UN Committee, General Comment No. 16, State Obligations Regarding the Impact of the Business Sector on Children’s Rights, CRC/C/GC/16 (2013), para. 4(b); A. Nolan, ‘Economic and Social Rights, Budgets and the Convention on the Rights of the Child International Journal of Children’s Rights’, 21, no. 2 (2013): 248–277, 275.

15 Centre for Economic and Social Rights, Assessing Austerity, 17, https://www.cesr.org/sites/default/files/Austerity-Report-Online2018.FINAL_.pdf (accessed 17 April 2020).

16 Cantillon and others, Children of Austerity.

17 UN Committee, General Comment No. 5, para. 52.

18 Ibid.; and UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, Report on the Twenty-Second Session, September/October 1999, CRC/C/9 (1999), para. 291(m).

19 UN Committee, General Comment No. 19, para. 27.

20 Ibid., para. 45. See also, for example, UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, Day of General Discussion, On Resources for the Rights of the Child, Responsibility of States, 46th Session (2007), para. 16.

21 R. Hodgkin and P. Newell, Implementation Handbook for the CRC (UNICEF, 2007), 63.

22 UN Committee, General Comment No. 19, para. 31.

23 UN Committee, Resources for the Rights of the Child, paras 29–30.

24 Nolan, ‘Economic and Social Rights’, 276.

25 UN Committee, General Comment No. 19, para. 47. See also General Comment No. 5, para. 45; and General Comment No. 14, para. 99.

26 A. Nolan, Protecting the Child from Poverty: The Role of Rights in the Council of Europe (Strasbourg: Council of Europe, 2019).

27 S. Hoffman, Championing Children’s Rights in Times of Austerity: Local and Regional Authorities’ Responsibilities (Strasbourg: Council of Europe, Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, 2015).

28 Human Rights Council, Toward Better Investment in the Rights of the Child: Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, A/HRC/28/33 (2014), para. 16.

29 Hodgkin and Newell, Implementation Handbook, 6.

30 Y. P. Krieger and E. Ribar, Child Rights Impact Assessment of Economic Policies: A Case Study from Bosnia and Herzegovina (2008), 16, https://www.childimpact.unicef-irc.org/en/psia-cria/b-h-cria (accessed 17 April 2020).

31 Hodgkin and Newell, Implementation Handbook, 61.

32 UN Committee, Report on 72nd-77th Session, A/73/41, (2018), para. 35; UN Committee, General Comment No. 19.

33 S. Hoffman, ‘The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Decentralisation and Legislative Integration: A Case Study from Wales’, International Journal of Human Rights 23, no. 3 (2019).

34 UN Committee, General Comment No. 19, paras 12 and 13.

35 UN Committee, Report on 72nd-77th Session, para. 35.

36 UN Committee, General Comment No. 5, paras. 40 and 41. See also, Human Rights Committee, General Comment No. 31, The Nature of the General Legal Obligation Imposed on States Parties to the Covenant, para. 4.

37 S. Walker, The Future of Human Rights Impact Assessments of Trade Agreements (Utrecht: Intersentia, 2009), 30–34.

38 UN Committee, General Comment No. 19, para. 47; HRC, Guiding Principles, para. 17(4).

39 O. De Schutter, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food: Guiding Principles on Human Rights Impact Assessments of Trade and Investment Agreements, UN Doc. No. A/HRC/19/59/Add.5 (2011), Part VI; J. Ruggie, UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the Issue of Human Rights and Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises, Human Rights Impact Assessment – Resolving Key Methodological Questions, UN Doc. No. A/HRC/4/74 (2007).

40 UN Committee, General Comment No. 19, paras 71–72; UN Committee, Report on the Twenty-Second Session, para. 291 (m); and General Comment No. 5, para. 45; Hodgkin and Newell, Implementation Handbook.

41 UN Committee, General Comment No. 19, paras 11, 73 and 77.

42 Corrigan, ‘Child Impact Statements’, 33.

43 Harrison, ‘Human Rights Measurement’, 174.

44 UN Committee, General Comment No. 5, paras 48–50; and General Comment No. 19, paras 67 and 68.

45 UN Committee, General Comment No. 19, para. 67; K. Hanna, I. Hassall, and E. Davies, ‘Child Impact Reporting’, Social Policy Journal of New Zealand 29, no. 32–42 (2006): 35.

46 Harrison, ‘Human Rights Measurement’, 172–173.

47 HRC, Guiding Principles, para. 7(3); J. Harrison and A. Goller, ‘Trade and Human Rights: What Does “Impact Assessment” Have to Offer?’, Human Rights Law Review 8, no. 4 (2008): 587–615, 599.

48 A. Crowley, ‘Is Anyone Listening? The Impact of Children’s Participation in Public Policy’, International Journal of Children’s Rights 23, no. 3 (2015): 602–621.

49 UN Committee, General Comment No. 19, for example, paras 31 and 47.

50 UN Committee, General Comment No. 19, for paras 52, 53 and 68.

51 R. Croke and A. Crowley, ‘Human Rights and Child Poverty in the UK: Time for Change’, in The Human Rights of Children: From Visions to Implementation, ed. J. Williams and A. Invernizzi (Farnham: Ashgate, 2011).

52 Harrison and Stephenson, Human Rights Impact Assessment, 18–19.

53 UN Committee, General Comment No. 19, para. 17.

54 Harrison and Stephenson, Human Rights Impact Assessment, 18–19.

55 Walker, The Future of Human Rights Impact Assessments, 36–37; UN Development Group, The Human Rights Based Approach to Development Cooperation: Towards a Common Understanding among UN Agencies (New York: UNDP, 2003). Also vital is enhancing the capacity of children as rights-holders, and those who represent them, to take advantage of their rights.

56 UN Committee, General Comment No. 19, para. 47.

57 UN Committee, General Comment No. 19, for example, paras 21 and 83.

58 Harrison and Stephenson, Human Rights Impact Assessment, 55.

59 UN Committee, Day of Discussion, para. 32; OHCHR, Human Rights and Poverty Reduction: A Conceptual Framework (New York: United Nations, 2004), 16.

60 De Schutter, Report of the Special Rapporteur, para. 41.

61 Payne, Child Rights Impact Assessment, 22.

62 UNICEF, Law Reform and the Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (Florence: Innocenti Research Centre, 2007), 124.

63 While Finland and Denmark are also often mentioned as having introduced CRIA at some level, a literature search failed to find any study or commentaries on the experience of CRIA in these states.

64 Belgium is a federal state with three regions: the Flemish Community, the French Community and the German-language Community.

65 E. Desmett, H. Op de Beeck, and W. Vandenhole, ‘Walking a Tightrope, Evaluating the Child and Youth Impact Report in Flanders’, International Journal of Children’s Rights 22 (2014): 79–81, fn 7 and 8.

66 Ibid., 96.

67 E. Desmett and H. Op de Beeck, ‘Strategic Decisions in Setting Up Child Rights Impact Assessments’, Revue Générale de Droit 44, no. 1 (2014): 150.

68 Desmett, de Beeck and Vandenhole, ‘Walking a Tightrope’.

69 Ibid.

70 Ibid.

71 Belgium, State Party Report, CRC/C/BEL/3-4 (2009), paras 29–31 and 42.

72 Committee on the Rights of the Child, Concluding Observations, Belgium, CRC/C/BEL/CO/3-4 (2010), para. 19.

73 Ibid., para. 20.

74 Committee on the Rights of the Child, Concluding Observations, Belgium, CRC/C/BEL/CO/5-6 (2019), paras 7 and 10.

75 Krieger and Ribar, Child Rights Impact Assessment, 30–31.

76 Bosnia–Herzegovina: Child Rights Impact Assessment of Potential Electricity Price Increases (Innovation), https://www.unicef.org/innovations/index_48675.html.

77 Krieger and Ribar, Child Rights Impact Assessment, 2, 27–28 and 46.

78 Ibid., 29–46.

79 Bosnia and Herzegovina, State Party Report, CRC/C/BiH/2-4 (2011), para. 27.

80 Committee on the Rights of the Child, Concluding Observations, Bosnia and Herzegovina, CRC/C/BIH/CO/2-4 (2012), para. 16.

81 Bosnia and Herzegovina, State Party Report, CRC/C/BIH/5-6 (2018).

82 Committee on the Rights of the Child, Concluding Observations, Bosnia and Herzegovina, CRC/C/BIH/CO/5-6 (2019), paras 8–11.

83 Noted in Lundy et al., Legal Integration, 75.

84 New Brunswick Child and Youth Advocate (NBCYA), Child Rights Impact Assessment: A Primer for New Brunswick (Fredericton, New Brunswick: Office of the Child and Youth Advocate of New Brunswick, 2016), 3.

85 Ibid., 7–10.

86 Canada, State Party Report, CRC/C/CAN/5-6 (2018), para. 15. At the time of writing the Committee had not published its latest Concluding Observations on Canada.

87 Committee on the Rights of the Child, Concluding Observations, Canada, CRC/C/CAN/CO/3-4 (2012), paras 16–17.

88 UNICEF Canada, Child Rights Impact Assessment, The Fundamentals (Toronto: UNICEF Canada, 2014), 7–8.

89 Ireland, State Party Report, CRC/C/Irl/2 (2005), para. 201.

90 Corrigan, ‘Child Impact Statements’.

91 Children’s Rights Alliance, Uniting Voices for Children, Are We There Yet? (2015).

92 Ibid., 40–41.

93 Corrigan, ‘Child Impact Statements’, 30.

94 Lundy and others, Legal Integration, 56.

95 Ireland, State Party Report, CRC/C/IRL/3-4 (2013).

96 Children’s Rights Alliance, Uniting Voices for Children, paras 33–34.

97 Ombudsman for Children, Report of the Ombudsman for Children to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (2015), para. 2(5.2); Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, Report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (2015), 14.

98 Committee on the Rights of the Child, Concluding Observations, Ireland, CRC/C/Irl/CO/3-4 (2016), para. 16(e).

99 Hanna et al., ‘Child Impact Reporting’, 33.

100 Ibid.

101 Mason and Hanna, K, Undertaking Child Impact Assessments, 7–8.

102 Ibid.

103 Ibid., 24.

104 Ibid., 21.

105 Ibid., 21–30.

106 Committee on the Rights of the Child, Concluding Observations, New Zealand, CRC/C/NZL/CO (2011).

107 New Zealand, State Party Report, CRC/C/NZL/5 (2016), para. 61.

108 Human Rights Commission, Submission of the New Zealand Human Rights Commission to the Committee on the Rights of the Child’s Pre Sessional Meeting (2015), 14.

109 Committee on the Rights of the Child, Concluding Observations, New Zealand, CRC/C/NZL/CO/05 (2011), paras 7 and 9.

110 Noted by Lundy et al., Legal Integration, 97.

111 L. Sylwander, Child Impact Assessments: Swedish experience of Child Impact Analyses as a Tool for Implementing the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (Stockholm: Ministry of Health and Social Affairs and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2001), 9.

112 Ibid., 5–16; Ombudsman for Children, 2006, 4.

113 Ombudsman for Children, Child Impact Analysis (Stockholm: Ombudsman for Children, 2006), 4.

114 Sylwander, Child Impact Assessments, 16–18.

115 Sweden, State Party Report, CRC/C/125/Add.1 (2002), paras 25, 29, 53 and 122.

116 Sweden, State Party Report, CRC/C/SWE/4 (2008), para.18. See also: Sweden, State Party Report, 2012, para. 73.

117 Committee on the Rights of the Child, Concluding Observations, Sweden, CRC/C/SWE/4 (2009), paras 24 and 30.

118 Committee on the Rights of the Child, Concluding Observations, Sweden, CRC/C/SWE/CO/5, (2015), paras 9 and 10.

119 Payne, Child Rights Impact Assessment, England, 411–412, 411.

120 Payne, Child Rights Impact Assessment, Northern Ireland, 412–413, 412, citing Byrne and Lundy, Barriers to Effective Government Delivery.

121 Section 1(1) of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014.

122 Scottish government website: https://www.gov.scot/policies/human-rights/childrens-rights/ (accessed 10 October 2020).

123 Ibid.

124 Scottish Government Consultation, UNCRC, Analysis Report, 14–15, https://www.gov.scot/publications/uncrc-consultation-analysis-report/ (accessed 17 April 2020).

125 Ibid., 48 and 95.

126 Rights of Children and Young Persons (Wales) Measure 2011, Section 1.

127 Ibid., Section 4; Welsh Government, Children’s Rights Scheme (2014), https://www.assembly.wales/Laid%20Documents/GEN-LD9732%20-%20Children's%20Rights%20Scheme%202014-22042014-255569/gen-ld9732-e-English.pdf (accessed 17 April 2020).

128 S. Hoffman and S. O’Neill, The Impact of Legal Integration of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in Wales (Cardiff: Equality and Human Rights Commission, 2018), 24.

129 S. Hoffman and C. Morse, Evaluation of the Welsh Government’s Child Rights Impact Assessment Procedure under the Children’s Rights Scheme Pursuant to the Rights of Children and Young Persons (Wales) Measure 2011 (Swansea: Wales Observatory on Human Rights of Children and Young People, 2015), 4.

130 Ibid., 4–5, and 18.

131 Ibid.

132 Hoffman and O’Neill, The Impact of Legal Integration.

133 Ibid.

134 C. Grace, Reducing Complexity and Adding Value: A Strategic Approach to Impact Assessment in the Welsh Government (Cardiff: Public Policy Institute for Wales, 2016); Payne, Child Rights Impact Assessment, Wales, 414–415, 415.

135 Welsh Government Draft Budget, 2020–2021, SIIS Annex C, https://gov.wales/sites/default/files/publications/2019-12/2020-2021-draft-budget-narrative.pdf.

136 Byrne and Lundy, ‘Barriers to Effective Government Delivery’, 10.

137 Harrison and Stephenson, Human Rights Impact Assessment, 76; P. Hunt and G. MacNaughton, Impact Assessments, Poverty and Human Rights: A Case Study Using the Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health, Health and Human Rights Working Paper Series No. 6 (Geneva: World Health Organization and UNESCO, 2006), 31.

138 Byrne and Lundy, ‘Children’s Rights and Policy-Making’.

139 HRC, Guiding Principles, paras 11(6), 19(1) and 10(3).

140 UN Committee, General Comment No. 19, para. 16, and for example paras 8(k) and 67(c). See also: B. Byrne and L. Lundy, ‘Children’s Rights and Policy-Making: A 6 P Framework’, International Journal of Children’s Rights 23, no. 3 (2019).

141 UN Committee, General Comment No. 19, para. 53; Hanna et al., Child Impact Reporting, 37.

142 Echoing Harrison, ‘Human Rights Measurement’, on HRIA, 183.

143 The European Network of Ombudsman for Children has commissioned research on a suitable CRIA model, https://enoc.eu/?p=3158 (accessed 17 April 2020). A recent report urged the Council of Europe’s Ad Hoc Committee for the Rights of the Child to advance its activities toward development of a child impact assessment: Nolan, Protecting the Child, 13. Either of these initiatives may provide suitable guidance for government and others.