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IT HASN'T GONE AWAY YOU KNOW…..

How do we get a Bill of Rights that works for children and young people?


Bill of Rights - what Bill of Rights? This is a very understandable reaction from many in the children's sector when mention is made of a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland. Many organisations were heavily involved in the consultation process, going back as far as early 2000. Then, when little was heard of the Bill of Rights last year people assumed that the process was complete or nearly complete. Work on the Bill of Rights made way for more pressing priorities including the Children's Commissioner and the Children's Strategy. However, the game is still on.

While the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission received around three hundred submissions in response to their consultation document, including many from the children's sector, they also realised that a number of the issues to be decided upon were complex and contentious and needed greater discussion with a wider audience engaging. The Commission thus decided to give the process more time and in December 2002 they launched Phase 3 of the process.

The Commission has stated that they envisage a participative and inclusive process in Phase 3 that will allow all constituencies and sectors of society, civil and political, privileged and excluded, to engage in dialogue around six key themes. These are: 'the particular circumstances' of Northern Ireland; how rights of vulnerable groups, including children should be included in a Bill of Rights; socio-economic rights; parity of esteem; equality and how a Bill of Rights should be enforced. All of these issues have relevance for the protection of children's rights within a Bill of Rights; indeed some are critical. While people may be somewhat 'Bill of Rights fatigued' nobody should underestimate the potential significance of a strong and inclusive Bill of Rights in establishing a human rights standard that all children living in Northern Ireland can enjoy.

So taking part in, and winning the arguments around the issues outlined above with the Human Rights Commission and the body politic will be crucial if the final Bill of Rights is to have meaning in the lives of all children and young people, and in particular those most marginalised. As Mary Robinson, ex UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has observed (re the Bill of Rights) "the final product is obviously important since the real test of the process lies in its ability to advance protection for the most vulnerable in society".

The children's sector successfully made the case for the Office of the Commissioner for Children and Young People. It is thanks to the collective hard work of the sector that this vision is soon to become a reality. However the other reality that has to be set alongside this success is that at present there is no comprehensive code of children's rights in Northern Ireland against which the Office of the Commissioner can gauge the protection of children's rights in this jurisdiction. While the European Convention on Human Rights can and has been used to successfully challenge breaches of children's rights in Northern Ireland, it does not contain either a dedicated children's rights provision or the children's rights principles which form the backbone of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Neither has the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child been incorporated into domestic law. However its incorporation via the Bill of Rights would provide the Commissioner for Children and Young People with an enforceable human rights benchmark by which to measure the promotion and protection of children's human rights. In addition to the incorporation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child the Bill of Rights will need to provide additional protection for children and young people, as it is readily acknowledged that this convention represents the minimum children's rights standards that states could agree on.

Another critical issue is how children and young people's rights are included in a Bill of Rights. While the consultation document included a separate chapter on children's rights the Commission has stated that it hasn't made up its mind yet on this issue. Children and young people when consulted on this question unanimously said that they wanted separate provision for their rights within the Bill. Their reasons were straightforward and are the same reasons that have informed such provision in most major international treaties including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Framework Convention on National Minorities. Having a separate and distinct children's rights section would enhance the accessibility and relevance of the Bill of Rights to children. It would also send out a powerful message that children are rights holders and as a vulnerable group are especially deserving of protection.

The question also needs to be asked - if there isn't going to be a separate children's rights section then where will fundamental rights for children be placed in the document? These rights include the best interests principle, the right to be heard, the right to participate and the right to protection. These are core rights that as of necessity must be included in the Bill of Rights and it would seem logical that as they are child specific rights the only way they can be included is in a separate section.

There has been much debate about the inclusion of socio-economic rights in a Bill of Rights. Very little of this debate has focused on the absolute need for these rights to be guaranteed to children and young people. Yet it is perhaps in the area of socio-economic rights that the inter-dependence and indivisibility of all rights is most apparent. Without basic rights such as the right to accommodation, health care, social services and a healthy and sustainable environment children's right to participate, to protection and to have their best interests respected become meaningless. How can a Traveller child, living on a roadside site without basic facilities such as running water and electricity 'participate' in their education? How is living below the poverty line in the best interests of a staggering 38% of our children? How is the lack of provision of essential social services 'protecting' children in need? How is it in their best interests? How is the means testing of the disabled facilities grant non-discriminatory towards children in its impact? The list goes on.

These issues also need to be debated with politicians. This will be particularly important as they become more engaged with the Bill of Rights project. Some politicians are on record as saying that they don't believe that children living in Northern Ireland need any rights different to children living in England. This is despite the fact that children living in Northern Ireland have suffered immeasurably as a result of thirty years of conflict, a reality recognised by the Good Friday Agreement. Indeed for children living in inter-face areas they continue to experience violence on an almost daily basis. Children's lives here have also been diminished through the lack of adequate provision in many aspects of their lives as a result of the policy vacuum which accompanied direct rule.

Some politicians also argue against the inclusion of any socio-economic rights in a Bill of Rights, claiming that they would cost too much, that they are difficult to define and that they couldn't be delivered on. Are any of these sufficiently convincing reasons to deny children rights to basic entitlements such as the right to accommodation and a childhood free from poverty? Have politicians worked out the human cost, both now and in the future, of denying children and young people basic rights? Sergio Vieria de Mello, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has identified security, dignity and equality as three formidable notions that must be at the heart of our vision for humanity. A Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland should above all represent a collective and forward looking vision for our society. If we don’t secure basic rights for all our children and young people through the Bill of Rights we will effectively be condemning them to a future without security, dignity, and equality; such a future would surely represent the antithesis of what a Bill of Rights should stand for.

The many international standards that exist in relation to socio-economic rights make it clear that it is in fact possible to set out specific definitions and to define the scope of such rights with the same precision as other rights. In addition, many countries have been able to incorporate, interpret and implement socio-economic rights through their Bill of Rights or constitution, without any great difficulty, including most recently South Africa. It is also worth noting that in a household survey conducted for the Human Rights Commission in autumn 2001, an overwhelming 89% of people from the two main communities were in favour of rights to health care and an adequate standard of living.

So what then can the children's sector do over the coming months to convince Human Rights Commissioners and politicians of the absolute need for strong children's rights protections in the Bill of Rights? The children's sector has already formed a lobby to campaign around this issue. However it will only be through the collective effort of the sector, as seen from the experience around the Commissioner for Children and Young People, that the arguments will be won. Below is a list of things that your organisation can do to advance these arguments



Join the Bill of Rights Group

Get on the e-mail listing for the group

Sign the Statement of Support if you haven't done so already (indicating your organisation's support for the maximum children's rights protections in a Bill of Rights)

Get a copy of the briefing paper for the children's sector on a Bill of Rights for Norhtern Ireland (commissioned from Dr. Ursula Kilkelly by the Human Rights Commission)

Lobby your elected representatives at every opportunity

Join the Human Rights Consortium, a consortium of almost 100 community and voluntary groups campaigning for a strong and inclusive Bill of Rights

Contact Sara Boyce Children's Law Centre/Save the Children 90-245704 or Teresa Geraghty Save the Children 90-431123 for further information on any of these suggested actions.


In conclusion the Bill of Rights project represents a challenging and unique opportunity for everybody living in Northern Ireland, to imagine a better future for this society and to lay down the roots for this future through the Bill of Rights. In this process it is perhaps children and young people who have been most imaginative and visionary and have most readily grasped the central purpose of the project; "the bill of rights is about human rights - everyone is human and should be included". (Young person quoted in What You Said NIHRC 2002) The responsibility and the challenge for the children's sector is to advocate for the maximum protections for children and young people in the Bill with both Human Rights Commissioners and politicians so as to ensure that the vision of children and young people becomes a reality.


This article first appeared in Childcare News in April 2003.