Ten best practices, eight social rights: creating social justice for children and families standards and benchmarks for Social Justice Community Action Plans (SJCAPs)

Abstract

This article uses a number of the outcomes of the United Nations Decade for the Elimination of Poverty (1997-2006) to make the case for the development of Social Justice Community Action Plans by national and subnational public authorities. SJCAPs would encompass the promotion of equality and equity, the reduction of poverty, the reduction of non-economic inequalities, the eradication of discrimination in all its forms and the enjoyment of all fundamental human rights and freedoms by all citizens. The article provides 10 practices or benchmarks with which to guide and/or evaluate such planning processes and the content of plans that may be developed. The article sets out the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights draft guidelines on what constitutes poverty and the eight core social rights which governments should be obligated to ensure are enjoyed by all citizens. The article is intended to contribute constructively to the growing internationalisation of social policy analysis and practice in the UK. Together with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child this has the potential to make a base of social justice for the fifth of children in the UK who have been and are being raised in poverty. Government child poverty targets for 2005 have not been met. The UK’s track record on child poverty and the implications of child poverty remains poor and is inconsistent with the rhetoric of equality of opportunity promoted by New Labour.