Children Act - ARCH plea for help!
PLEASE HELP US!
Jan 2005
Last year Action on Rights for Children (ARCH) campaigned hard against
clauses in the new Children Act which give the Government powers to
build a
database system to record the details of every child in England and
Wales from
birth, and require professionals to share confidential information
about all
children without the consent or knowledge of families.
(if this is news to you, see: _http://www.arch-ed.org/chldrnbill.htm_
(http://www.arch-ed.org/chldrnbill.htm)
)
These database plans were one of the examples that the Information
Commissioner cited when he warned that we are
in danger of 'sleepwalking into a surveillance society'. The
Parliamentary
Joint Committee on Human Rights concluded
that they were a 'serious interference' with human rights.
Despite the many objections, the Children Act 2004 was passed by
just
12 votes and the
Government has begun the process of creating the database and
information-sharing system.
ARCH believes that the Government's plans may be incompatible with the
Human
Rights Act 1998
and, following legal advice from Bindmans, intends to challenge the
Government through the courts.
In order to do this, ARCH needs to raise money urgently
ARCH has to raise £5,000 during the next few weeks if it is to mount a
challenge to the Government's database plans
ARCH is completely unfunded.
Membership is free and expenses come out of volunteers' own pockets.
Please send us a donation, no matter how small, towards the cost of
this
legal action.
Without your help we simply cannot go ahead.
If you share our concerns about the Children Act 2004, please send
money or
a cheque payable to
'Action on Rights for Children'
as soon as possible to:
ARCH
62 Wallwood Road
LONDON E11 1AZ