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