UNCRC Scotland Act Conference

The UNCRC (Scotland) Act recently passed in January aims to deliver a proactive culture of everyday accountability for children’s rights across public services in Scotland. Legal Services Agency is delighted to announce their conference which will outline and discuss the new Act. The conference will take place on Wednesday the 5th of June 2024 and aims to provide delegates with an insight into the implications of the Act on children’s rights in addition to its potential impact from those who worked on the Act as well as experts from within this field.

CPD 5 hours

PEAT Outcome - Relevant legal knowledge

OBJECTIVES

The conference will examine and discuss the following topics –

• The UNCRC and the CYPCS office's legal powers
• The UNCRC in Scotland – The Benefits of Linking into International Law
• Human Rights (Scotland) Bill and the potential for that to overlap with and strengthen the CRC Act
• UNCRC: Recent Developments and future trends in Children’s Rights

PARTICIPANTS

This conference is aimed at trainees, solicitors and those practicing in child law advisory work.

SPEAKERS

Nick Hobbs, Head of Advice and Investigations, CYPCS

Nick Hobbs is Head of Advice and Investigations for the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland. Nick’s role is to exercise the Commissioner’s legal powers of investigation into violations of children’s rights, develop the office’s capacity to undertake strategic litigation, and oversee the office’s human rights advice function.

Prior to joining the Commissioner’s office in 2017, Nick spent 11 years as Policy and Public Affairs Manager for the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA) where he worked on issues including human trafficking, youth justice, child protection and domestic abuse.

Nick served on the Board of the Scottish Child Law Centre from 2012-2019, including four years as Chair between 2015-2019. He has a Law degree from the University of Sheffield and an MSc in Human Rights and International Politics from the University of Glasgow.

Bruce Adamson, Professor of Practice, University of Glasgow School of Law

Bruce Adamson is Professor in Practice at the University of Glasgow School of Law. A human rights lawyer with over 20 years of experience, Bruce has worked as an international expert for the UN, the Council of Europe, EU, OSCE and various other international bodies. He was the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland from 2017-2023, playing a leading role in the incorporation of the UNCRC, as well as the laws to raise the age of criminal responsibility and to provide comprehensive protection from physical punishment. Bruce is a former Chair of the European Network of Ombudspersons for Children and of the Scottish Child Law Centre. He is the current Vice-Chair of the Child Friendly Governance Project.

Dr Kasey McCall-Smith, Senior Lecturer in Public International Law, University of Edinburgh School of Law

Kasey McCall-Smith is a Senior Lecturer in Public International Law at the University of Edinburgh Law School where she is also the director of the Global Justice Academy and the LLM in Human Rights program. She is a US qualified lawyer and holds an LLM and PhD in International Law from the University of Edinburgh. Her research focuses primarily on treaty law and how treaties are interpreted and implemented at the domestic and supranational levels including through incorporation. She has published extensively on the subjects of reservations to treaties, the prohibition against torture, fair trial rights, human rights incorporation and the role of the treaty bodies as generators of law. She recently served as a member of the Academic Advisory Panel to the National Taskforce for Human Rights Leadership in Scotland and the Expert Advisory Committee on UNCRC Incorporation in Scotland. From 2017-2023 she served as the chair of the Association of Human Rights Institutes.

Professor Nicole Busby, Professor in Human Rights, Equality and Justice, University of Glasgow School of Law

Nicole Busby is Professor of Human Rights, Equality and Justice at the University of Glasgow and Co-Director of the GO Justice Centre which aims to drive social change through legal education and research. She is an expert in equality law and has published widely in this field. She is the academic lead for the Human Rights Consortium Scotland’s project ‘Empowering Scottish civil society influence on legal, constitutional and administrative change’ through which civil society organisations engage directly with law and policy. Nicole provides guidance to policy-makers, including the Scottish Government, on Scotland’s human rights and equality law framework.

Final speaker - TBC

PROGRAMME

9.30-10.00 Registration and refreshments

10.00-10.15 Introduction from Chair: Bruce Adamson

10.15-11.00 Nick Hobbs, Head of Advice and Investigations, CYPCS – Keynote Speaker – the UNCRC and the CYCPS office’s legal powers

11.00-11.15 Tea/Coffee

11.15-12.00 TBC

12.00-12.45 Dr Kasey McCall-Smith, Senior Lecturer in Public International Law, University of Edinburgh School of Law – The UNCRC in Scotland – The Benefits of Linking into International Law

12.45-1.30 Lunch (provided)

1.30-2.15 Professor Nicole Busby, Professor in Human Rights, Equality and Justice, University of Glasgow School of Law – Human Rights (Scotland) Bill and the potential for that to overlap with and strengthen the CRC Act

2.15-2:45 Bruce Adamson, Professor of Practice, University of Glasgow School of Law - Chair of the conference – UNCRC: Recent Developments and future trends in Children’s Rights

2:45-3:20 Panel Discussion and Q&A

3:20-3.30 Closing remarks

Host or Publisher Legal Services Agency Ltd