Children's Rights Alliance for England


Children's Rights Alliance For England is a London-based pressure group. Since 2015 it has operated as part of the children's charity Just for Kids Law.
CRAE was set up in 1991 after the UK ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in order to monitor the UK Government's commitment to upholding the document. They aim to protect the human rights of children in the UK by lobbying government and others who hold power. They also bring or support test cases and use regional and international human rights mechanisms. They provide free legal information and advice to young people, raise awareness of children’s human rights, and undertake research about children’s access to their rights. As such they are a member of The National Council for Voluntary Youth Services which is an England-wide organisation which supports and promotes the work of youth groups and charities. CRAE publish an annual review of the State of children's rights in England.

Get Ready for Geneva and Get Ready for Change

From April 2007 CRAE wrote a report on and tried influence the UK's response to the Convention on the Rights of the Child through their youth-led campaign arm .
Following the publication of the concluding observations of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child in October 2008, the 'Get Ready for Geneva' project became 'Get Ready for Change'. The group now lobbies the UK Government with the aim of securing resolutions to the issues the UN Committee raised.

See it, Say It, Change it

In February 2015, CRAE assembled a new steering group of 21 Children and Young People in order to create another report to the United Nations on the state of Children's Rights in England.
This report was published in July 2015, and was launched in the Houses of Parliament, with MP's such as Tulip Siddiq and Alison Thewliss in attendance.
The group attended the United Nations session in October 2015 to provide more evidence on topics mentioned in the report.
The concluding observations contained material that CRAE had themselves suggested.
The campaign stage of the project is now underway, and the main focus of the campaign is lobbying the government to either stick to their 6-week legal limit on housing people in bed and breakfasts, or abolish this altogether.