Observatory of Children’s Human Rights Scotland
We are a collaborative of Scottish organisations working to drive implementation of children’s human rights in Scotland, with local impact and global learning.
Our vision
We work towards a Scotland where children’s human rights are fully implemented in all areas of children and young people’s lives, in line with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and broader international human rights treaties. This will help to ensure that children’s human dignity is respected and all children are supported to thrive and reach their full potential.
To achieve this, we want to use global and local learning to stimulate change in Scotland by:
- bringing together lived experiences along with academic, inter-disciplinary and cross-sector contributions to exchange and amplify ideas, evidence and expertise in order to accelerate progress
- fostering spaces to critique and grapple with the contentious and complex challenges inherent to implementing children’s human rights
- identifying progress in implementing children’s human rights in terms of particular areas, practice and systems, and how to address gaps
Our membership
The organisations working together to develop the Observatory’s strategy and agenda are:
- CELCIS
- Childhood and Youth Studies Group, Moray House School of Education and Sport, University of Edinburgh
- Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland (independent advisor)
- Children’s Parliament
- Global Justice Academy
- Inspiring Children’s Futures, University of Strathclyde
- Together (Scottish Alliance for Children’s Rights)
Our work
Information about activities can be found on the 'Our Work' page linked below and on the University’s Research Explorer.
Terms of Reference
The Observatory's Terms of Reference can be downloaded below. They are revised annually.
Terms of Reference - Observatory of Children's Human Rights Scotland (785.87 KB PDF)
Recent and current funding
Royal Society of Edinburgh Research Network grant, "Research Network on Children's Human Rights: Mobilising expertise from research, policy and practice", March 2023-February 2025.
Scottish Graduate School of Social Sciences Open Collaborative Studentship grant, "Developing children’s human rights indicators for Scotland", October 2023 onwards
University of Edinburgh CAHSS Knowledge Exchange and Impact Grant, “Ensuring accountability for children’s human rights”, January – September 2023.
Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)’s Impact Acceleration Grant (grant reference ES/T50189X/1”), “Making children’s rights real through implementation of the UNCRC”, February 2021 - November 2022.
Scottish Government, funding to develop the Theory of Change for Making Children’s Rights Real in Scotland, November 2021 – May 2022.
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