Children and Young People's Sector Bill of Rights Group

Supporters of Children

Sheri Chamberlain's speech Bill of Rights Event 20 Aug 2003

Briefing Note for Politicians 6 March 2003

Michael Leatham's speech Bill of Rights Event 20 Aug 2003

Hello, my name is Roisin Bradley and I am a member of youth@clc which is an advisory group at the Children's Law Centre, but as a young person I also represent over 25% of the population in Northern Ireland. When adults think of children and young people they just see them as children and young people they do not see them as the diverse group that they are. In fact we are a very diverse group. We are boys and girls, young women and young men, we are young people with disabilities, young travellers, young chinese, young Asians, young workers, young parents, young carers and young people in care. We live West Belfast, East Belfast, Glenavy, Omagh, Enniskillen and towns and villages across Northern Ireland.

At the same time as children and young people under the age of 18, we all need specific rights protection for example:

All children and young people need the right to education.
The right privacy.
The right to have a say and be listened to.
The right to information.

At the moment one of the main reasons that children and young people do not know about their rights due to the lack of information. The information that is available about children and young people’s rights is hard to access and difficult to understand.
Hopefully having a separate section in the Bill of Rights which clearly lays out our rights will change this.