3 | The Child Rights Impact Assessment tool • If the policy/legislation results in the collection of personal information that relates to children, the right to privacy is likely to be engaged. An indirect impact on children’s rights occurs where policy/legislation predominantly impacts on those other than children, but children are impacted as a consequence. For example: • If the policy/legislation impacts the ability of a parent to care for their child (i.e. mandatory sentencing), the best interests of that child must be considered as their wellbeing will be impacted as a result. • If the policy/legislation impacts on parental access to social or economic benefits, a number of children’s rights may be impacted as a consequence of their parent being unable to afford basic necessities. Negative impacts on the rights of children may be permissible as long as the impact is reasonable, necessary, and proportionate. Stage 4 of the CRIA discusses this in more detail. It should be noted that some rights are absolute, meaning that they cannot be limited for whatever reason. These rights include: • • • • • freedom from torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) Article 7) freedom from slavery and servitude (ICCPR Article 8) freedom from imprisonment for inability to fulfil a contractual obligation (ICCPR Article 11) prohibition against the retrospective operation of criminal laws (ICCPR Article 15) right to recognition as a person before the law (ICCPR Article 16). If the policy/legislation has a negligible impact on children, or rights are positively upheld, question 4 prompts the assessor to end the assessment. Stage 2: Identifying sources of information 5. What types of information are available in order to make an assessment on the potential impacts of the policy/legislation? 6. What types of information are missing that would be beneficial to this assessment? 7. Who are the stakeholders that need to be engaged with? 8. How have children been engaged in the process of policy/legislation design to ensure their views and experiences inform decision-making? Does this include groups of children who are more likely impacted? Safeguarding Children: Using a child rights impact assessment to improve our laws and policies | 21