Guidance on Part 1, Section 2 (Duties of Public Authorities in relation to the UNCRC) of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014

Appendix 5: Human Rights-Based Approach

174. The PANEL principles provide a useful framework for taking forward a human rights based approach.^[39] The PANEL principles are:

• Participation - People should be involved in decisions that affect their rights;
• Accountability - There should be monitoring of how people's rights are being affected, as well as remedies when things go wrong;
• Non-Discrimination - Nobody should be treated unfairly because of their age, gender, ethnicity, disability, religion or belief, sexual orientation or gender identity. People who face the biggest barriers to realising their rights should be prioritised when it comes to taking action;
• Empowerment - Everyone should understand their rights, and be fully supported to take part in developing policy and practices which affect their lives;
• Legality - Approaches should be grounded in the legal rights that are set out in domestic and/or international law^[40].

175. The PANEL principles complement the General Principles^[41] of the UNCRC and the General Measures of Implementation (implementing the UNCRC through law, policy and decisions which impact on children) and the wider range of UNCRC Articles. They therefore provide a useful resource for human rights-based approaches and underpin, for example, the National Health and Wellbeing Outcomes.^[42] This guidance focuses on giving effect to the UNCRC and therefore public bodies are encouraged to use the UNCRC as the framework for reporting.

176. A CRWIA has been undertaken as part of the policy development of Part 1, and is illustrative of the use of the UNCRC as the framework for reporting.