About Us

JustRights was founded in 2009 by Children's Rights Alliance for England, Law Centres Network, The Howard League for Penal Reform and Youth Access out of a shared concern that children and young people were marginalised from access to good quality advice, advocacy and legal representation.

We believe that:

  • Children and young people are a uniquely vulnerable client group with advice needs and advice-seeking behaviour that are distinct from those of all other client groups
  • Only carefully tailored - and properly resourced - service delivery approaches will be successful in meeting the specific advice, advocacy and legal representation needs of children and young people
  • Current arrangements do not provided the advice, advocacy and legal representation needed by children and young people if they are to enjoy the rights and protections the law affords them

JustRights wants to see a system of justice which gives all children and young people ready access to high quality independent advice, advocacy and legal representation whenever they may need it in the course of their lives.

To achieve this, we call upon Government and relevant public authorities to:

  • Recognise the uniquely vulnerable nature of children and young people as an advice client group and their current marginalisation from access to justice.
  • Invest in the development of independent, age-appropriate advice, advocacy and legal representation services.
  • Develop cross-departmental strategies for children and young people’s advice services at national and local levels.
  • Develop a national strategy for educating all children and young people about their legal rights and how they can avoid and deal with law-related problems.
  • Pay due regard to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and ensure a thorough age equality impact assessment of all policy reforms affecting advice, advocacy and legal representation for children and young people.
  • Enable the meaningful participation of children and young people in the development of legal advice policy and services.

JustRights is now a broad coalition of leading children's, youth and legal organisations.

Current supporters include:

Association for Young People’s Health

Become

Brightside

Brook

Catch 22  

Children England

Children’s Rights Alliance for England

Community Links

Confederation of Heads of Young People’s Services  

Coram Children's Legal Centre

Coram Voice

Family Rights Group

The Howard League for Penal Reform

Independent Academic Research Studies  

Just for Kids Law

Law Centres Network

Law for Life

Migrant & Refugee Children's Legal Unit

National Youth Advocacy Service

National Youth Agency  

New Horizon Youth Centre

No Recourse to Public Funds Network

Peer Power

Release

Royal Association for Deaf people

Streetgames

Streetlegal

The Cabin 

Young Minds

Young People's Law Service

Young People's Support Foundation

Youth Access

Youth Legal & Resource Centre