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Happy anniversary? 30 years of the Children Act

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28 November 2019 / David Burrows
Issue: 7866 / Categories: Features , Family
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On the 30th anniversary of the Children Act, David Burrows reflects on the state of children’s rights
  • Legal developments in the run up to the Children Act 1989.
  • Birth of the Children Act 1989.
  • Listening to children.
  • A case about children’s rights.
  • Children’s rights in 2019: thirty years on from Children Act 1989.

The Children Act 1989 (CA 1989) received Royal Assent on 16 November 1989 (in force from October 1991). Its thirtieth anniversary is upon us. It was a statute which required all courts, social workers and practising children lawyers (a breed which at the time was only just emerging) to learn a new set of legal concepts.

This article looks specifically at children’s rights under the Act in those thirty years. Central to this is the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989. Its Art 12.1 says: ‘1 States Parties shall assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express

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