Jennifer Twite and Fatima Jichi of Garden Court Chambers are instructed by Chris Callender at Just for Kids Law, led by Steve Broach KC of 39 Essex Street.
The UK Covid-19 Inquiry today opened hearings for Module 8, which will examine how government decisions during the pandemic impacted on children and young people across the UK, including disabled children, those with special educational needs, growing up in poverty, in contact with the criminal justice and mental health systems and from diverse backgrounds.
Jennifer Twite and Fatima Jichi act for core participant Children’s Rights’ Organisations (CROs), five leading children’s charities: The Centre for Young Lives, Child Poverty Action Group, Save the Children UK; Just for Kids Law, and the Children’s Rights Alliance for England
The Module will explore the impact of school closures, cuts to social care protections, the closure of playgrounds, the isolation of children, restrictions on children in prisons and the widening of pre-existing inequalities and structural discrimination.
The CROs argue that the harm to children was not inevitable – but a result of a systemic failure to prioritise children’s rights, both during the pandemic and in the years leading up to it.
They are calling for the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child to be incorporated into UK law and for a legal duty to consider children’s rights in decision making. This would safeguard children’s rights during any future emergency.
Over the next four weeks, the Inquiry will question key decision makers, including former Prime Minister Boris Johnson and former Education Secretary Gavin Williamson, about the decisions that shaped the lives of millions of children during the pandemic.
