Reading Time: 3 minutesIn 2024, Scotland incorporated the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) into law and advanced the New Scots refugee integration policy, showing its commitment to protecting children’s rights and promoting the inclusion of young refugees. However, literature suggests that despite supportive and inclusive policies, the realisation of the rights of young people, including young refugees, remains limited in practice

Reading Time: 3 minutesThis dissertation examines how the rights of children from Armed Forces families in Scotland are protected, fulfilled, and promoted during periods of parental separation caused by military service. Guided by the UNCRC (1989), Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, and the sociology of childhood, it adopts a child rights-based qualitative approach to explore how family, school, and community collectively shape children’s emotional well-being and rights realisation within the structural and cyclical nature of armed forces life.

Reading Time: 4 minutesThis project explored how young people in Scotland use and experience what we call “third spaces” — these are public, non-commercial places outside home and school, such as parks, libraries, and youth centres. These spaces often act as a bridge between private and formal life, giving teenagers a chance to relax, meet friends, and feel part of their communities.