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The
Children’s Law Centre and Save the Children
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The Children’s Law Centre is a voluntary organisation
that was established in 1997. It aims to help children,
young people, their parents and professionals work with
and understand the laws which affect children.
The Children’s Law Centre does this in a number of ways
- through education and training, legal advice and research.
As well as working directly with young people, a lot of
work is also carriedout with adults involved in children’s
lives using training, conferences, work with other organisations
and by replying to the government when it is making new
plans. Save the Children is the UK’s leading international
children’s charity, working to create a better future
for children. The organisation works in the UK and across
the world, in over 50 countries. All of the work is about
making sure that children’s rights are respected.
In Northern Ireland, Save the Children works with communities
in a variety of ways to do this. For example, it helps
communities take action on young people’s issues, helps
children and young people to lead projects, it does research
and education and tells the government what it thinks
of its plans. |
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The
United Nations Convention
on the rights of the child
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The UNCRC is
a promise made by government to young people under the
age of 18 years. When the UK government signed it in 1991
they agreed that children and young people are citizens
who have a number of rights and they agreed to make sure
this promise is kept. The government works through several
bodies on an everyday basis, e.g. Dept of Education (DENI),
RUC, Health and Social Services Trusts etc . Each of these
bodies are supposed to help government keep its promise.
This Convention has been signed by almost all of the countries
in the world. |
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Telling The
United Nations What Happens
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Every five years
the government has to tell a group of experts in the United
Nations (UN) what they have done to make sure they are
keeping their promise. This group of people is called
the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. This is the
second time the UK government has reported to the UN Committee
on the Rights of the Child since they signed the Convention
in 1991.
The Committee points out where government has not lived
up to its promises and makes suggestions and recommendations
to government about ways to improve things. In the next
report, government has to tell the Committee what it has
done about these recommendations. As well as getting reports
from the government the UN also invites voluntary and
community groups (non-governmental organisations or NGOs)
to give reports. When the Committee gets all of the written
reports the Committee also holds verbal hearings with
NGOs, where people from the country concerned speak to
the Committee. Then the Committee cross-examine the government
about the progress being made in keeping its promise.
The Children’s Law Centre and Save the Children decided
to write a report for the United Nations about what the
government is doing about their promise in Northern Ireland.
To do this we decided to have a research project, most
of which was with young people like you. We also spoke
to some adults e.g. parents, teachers, youth workers and
social workers.
We asked young people and adults from all over Northern
Ireland about things contained in the Convention, like
education and school, about safety, employment and work,
decision making, about getting information, about staying
healthy, about the police, social workers, teachers, youth
workers and probation officers, doctors and medical staff,
about parents and other adults. We also discussed leisure
time, play facilities, places for young people to meet,
transport and the environment. We looked at the different
ways in which young people are discriminated against,
e.g. because of their age, gender, race, religion, ethnic
origin, cultural identity, sexual orientation, ability/disability,
class, geographical location, parents’ background. We
carried out the research by using group discussions and
questionnaires with young people. In total about 400 young
people across Northern Ireland took part in the research.
Here is what we found. |
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The Promise:
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Young people
will be involved in all decisions that affect their lives |
What you told
us:
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Most
young people feel they have a say in decisions that
are made within the family. However, in other places
such as school and in relation to issues like health
they do not feel they are given enough of a say or are
consulted properly.
None of the young people who took part in the research
had been involved in making the rules in their schools.
Now and then pupils are asked about changes to the school
uniform or menu - but this is usual.
'The teachers don’t ask us about the rules...some
people were asked about changing the PE uniform but
most weren’t. There is a class captain and vice captain
but the teachers choose them' (Kate, aged
16).
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The Promise:
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Everyone has
the right to education. Education will develop a young
person’s talents for all areas of life - social, cultural
and environmental as well as academic. Different types
of second-level education will be supported. |
What we found
out:
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Schools in Northern
Ireland are very focused on passing tests and exams. Northern
Ireland is the only region of the UK that has kept the
11+. It is also the only area that has two types of second
level education - i.e. secondary and grammar.
Like young people in other regions, young people here
also have to do tests at different Key Stages.
Teachers told us that all of this testing and the league
tables are not really helping them do the job they trained
to do - i.e. teach, as they have more and more paperwork
to do in order to satisfy the government’s rules.
Some young people in Northern Ireland do very well in
their exams - over one-quarter leave school with 3 or
more A Levels. But nearly half (46%) leave school with
less than 5 GCSE’s. Traveller young people are especially
discriminated against in education. Some examples of this
are, having a separate school for Travellers, by refusing
to accept children from the Travelling community into
a school or by accepting lower standards of facilities
for Travellers compared to those for children from the
settled community. Irish Medium schools and Integrated
schools do not get the same support that other schools
receive. |
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School
Exclusions
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Young people
are sometimes excluded from school by suspension or expulsion.
Sometimes exclusions are for seriously dangerous behaviour
such as hitting another pupil or teacher or throwing a
chair across a room. But these are the exceptions - young
people are much more likely to be excluded for reasons
such as their hair style/colour, wearing nose-rings or
other jewellery not permitted or not wearing their full
uniform. There is no appeals procedure for suspensions
and although there is one for expulsions, it is the parentsof
the child who have the right to appeal. Pupils do not
have a right of appeal. There is very little space for
young people to make their voices heard here.
Sometimes schoolgirls who become pregnant are asked to
leave the school. Occasionally, they are allowed to stay
in the school after they have had their baby - so long
as they don’t talk about the baby or bring in photos of
the child: ‘My Principal told me that I could not start
back to school (after the summer holidays) as I would
be mixing with males and it would not look good for a
girl my age to be walking around with a bump. I was very
upset at this and was even more upset to be told that
my daughter’s father was allowed back’
(Elaine, aged 17). Young school-age fathers are not normally
treated in this way - but their needs may be ignored altogether.
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School
Discipline
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The Promise:
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Rules, and the
way that rules are enforced in a school, will make sure
that everyone is treated with respect and dignity. |
What you told
us:
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Young people
are not always treated with dignity and respect. For instance,
some young people who attend an independent school said
that they ‘got the cane’.
Although the majority of other young people do not get
hit in school, they feel that teachers use their words
to inflict pain and hurt on them. For instance, pupils
are embarrassed when teachers make them repeat an incorrect
answer or display their poor writing or spelling to the
class. |
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Information
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The Promise:
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Young people
will have access to information that is helpful to them.
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What you
told us:
Sex education
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Most young people
told us that the sex education they received was not very
good - it’s often split up between Biology, RE and PSE:
‘We knew more about the flowers and the animals
than we did about our own bodies’ (Chris, aged
17). Most of the information that is given is about childbirth
or periods. Pupils felt they knew more about abortion
than sex education. |
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What you
told us:
Careers
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The teaching
of careers in Northern Ireland varies from being very
good and well planned to being totally ineffective. Some
schools concentrate the careers classes on pupils who
are doing A Levels. ‘Our careers classes lasted for
30 minutes a week - people doing A Levels got
more but most people left school after 5th year’
(Peter, aged 18). |
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Privacy
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The Promise:
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Young people’s
privacy will be protected. |
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What we found
out:
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There are lots
of examples where your privacy is not respected. As well
as feeling that you are being watched by members of your
community other things, like the way estates are planned
and the lack of meeting places for young people, affect
your privacy. For young people in juvenile justice centres
things like spy-holes in their bedroom doors mean that
they have little privacy. Lack of privacy within schools
is also a big issue for young people in Northern Ireland.
You told us that you often feel that your privacy is invaded
by teachers who come into shower rooms after PE, who want
‘proof’ that you have had a shower, who stand watching
people change for/after PE. Some young people feel so
upset by this that they don’t go to PE class or sometimes
skip school on the day(s) PE is timetabled. |
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Play
and Recreation
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The Promise:
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Young people
and children will have places and time to play. Young
people will have places to meet friends and to form clubs/organisations
with them. |
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What you
told us:
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There are very
few play areas where children/young people can play safely.
Children often cannot use their local parks as these tend
to be dirty, the play equipment is often broken and sometimes
people drink and sniff glue in the parks, making them
unsafe places for play. Other times the parks are locked.
‘The swings in our park come out of the ground’
(Angela, aged 14). ‘There’s no place to play around
here so everyone plays on the street but sometimes the
cars go too fast - it’s dangerous’ (Tony,
aged 11). For young people in rural areas, there is an
assumption that being surrounded by open fields means
having lots of place to play. But the fields are part
of what farmers work with and often have animals and crops
in them so they are not suitable play spaces. Farms can
often be dangerous places for children.
Many young people, especially young women, do not feel
that youth clubs have much to offer them. In some places
there are no youth clubs. There are very few places where
young people can go to meet their friends. ‘Well there’s
only the (x) centre but that’s only if you’re interested
in rock music - it wouldn’t be safe for a Raver to be
seen going in (there)’ (Nicky, aged 17).
All of this means that the majority of young people play
or meet their friends on the street. Often adults in the
community then get annoyed at the young people.
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Homelessness
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The Promise:
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Young people
will be helped to have a proper standard of living and
to survive. This means having a place to live, enough
food to eat, clothes to keep you warm and being able to
stay healthy. |
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What we found
out:
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Young people
aged 16-25 make up more than half of those who looked
for help from the Simon Community (an organisation for
homeless people) in 1997/98. In 1997 three times as many
young people contacted Starting Point, another homeless
organisation, than had done in 1996. Almost all of these
young people were under the age of 18. It is very
difficult for young people under 18 years to be housed
by the government. |
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Youth
Justice
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The Promise:
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Young people
who break the law will be held in custody only as a last
resort. If a young person is being questioned by the police,
is in court or is held in custody s/he will be treated
with respect and dignity. Young people have the right
to a solicitor. |
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What we found
out:
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A child of 10
years can be charged with a criminal offence. Although
the government has agreed that young people under the
age of 18 should be treated as children, 17 year olds
are regarded as adults by the police and courts. This
means that 17 year olds can be kept in a prison with 21
year olds.
Young women of 17 are held in an adult prison.
All young men under 17 who need to be held in custody
are sent firstly to Lisnevin Juvenile Justice Centre.
Inspectors from the government have said that this Centre
is not a suitable place to keep young people. ‘Lisnevin...
is a dehumanising penal institution...’ (Social Services
Inspectorate, 1997).
Emergency Law here means that a child as youngas 10 years
can be detained by the police for up to 7 days without
charge.
Young people who are in custody have told usthat the education
they receive in the centres isnot good. They do not use
the same curriculum as other young people. They do a very
limited number of subjects and do not really feel that
they learn much. Neither do they have much opportunity
to take part in sports and the range of other activities
is very limited. 'We do Mechanics nearly
all day - we only do odd bits of other subjects’
Jerry, aged16). ‘The school here isn’t proper - you
don’t learn anything except for woodwork and PE’ (Jason,
aged 14). Young people from certain backgrounds are more
likely to be in the youth justice system than other young
people. For instance, a high proportionof those in juvenile
justice centres have special educational needs, are young
people who have been in care and/or are young Catholic
men. |
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Safety
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The Promise:
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Young people
in Northern Ireland will be safe and protected from harm.
The government through its representatives, including
the police, will make sure this happens. |
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What we found
out:
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Most young people
- both Protestant and Catholic - do not feel the police
do a good job protecting the community. You feel that
they are slow to come out when they are needed, for example
in situations of domestic violence. You feel that they
spend most of their time harassing young people and moving
you on from street corners. ‘I don’t think they care
about both sides because there’s a girl in my class...who’s
a Protestant and she says they treat them ones like scum
as well and shout things at them ones’
(Aine, aged 17). Occasionally some young people say that
the police are doing a good job because they tackle drink
driving, make the roads safer and detect crimes. These
opinions tend to be from younger people of primary school
age as opposed to teenagers.
The police are generally regarded as being discriminatory
- this is sometimes on the basis of race, gender, religion
but also, class. As one young person pointed out people
living in middle class areas are not hassled by them.
The police continue to put young people’s lives in danger
by using plastic bullets.
Some young people feel that, although they see the police
as being the protectors of the community, they could not
call them if there was trouble in their area because the
young person would feel threatened by the reaction of
other people living in the area.
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Ethnicity
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The Promise:
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Children of
ethnic minority groups should be able to enjoy their own
culture and religion. Members of ethnic groups will not
be discriminated against. |
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What you
told us:
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Being a member
of an ethnic group in Northern Ireland can mean being
bullied because of your race. It can also mean that you
do not have the same access to information and services
that everyone else has.
For example, there are 6,000 Chinese people in Northern
Ireland yet, only some Education and Library Boards have
help for children from ethnic groups in school; sometimes
parents are not able to help their children with homework
because their English is very limited and there is also
a shortage of trained interpreters in the health services.
Travellers, too, experience discrimination in relation
to their living conditions, lack of suitable housing,
education and health. Many Travellers do not have access
to clean water or basic sanitation.
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Disability
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The Promise:
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A young person
living with a disability will be given extra help to make
sure they can live life to the full, be independent like
other young people and will be treated with dignity. Young
people with disabilities will not be discriminated against.
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What we found
out:
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A young person
with a disability is likely to have to attend a special
needs school - often this is not close to his/her home
and can mean that the young person has to board. It is
difficult for young people in this situation to have friends
around home. It is likely that such young people will
have few friends who do not have a disability.
Young people living with a disability often find it difficult
to get access to information and sometimes feel that they
are not really listened to by adults. For instance, if
they are trying to decide whether or not they should have
an operation or some medical treatment, sometimes they
are not told all of the details or feel they are put under
pressure by medical staff to have the treatment.
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Young
People in the Care System
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The Promise:
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Children who
cannot be cared for at home will be cared for by government.
A young person in care will have his/her situation
reviewed regularly. The young person’s views on care plans
will be taken into account. A young person in care will
not be disadvantaged in any way. |
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What we found
out:
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Sometimes young
people cannot live at home with their parents or other
family members. Some children have lost their parents.
When this happens young people are cared for by Social
Services. They may live in a children’s home or with foster
parents. Through a new law called the Children Order young
people in care are having more of a say in what happens
to them than they did before this. However, sometimes
this depends on the social workers involved. Some social
workers are great at listening, but others are not.
Young people in care often feel they are pitied and that
people feel sorry for them. Sometimes adults who are involved
with children in care do not respect the young person’s
privacy. For instance, they might tell other adults or
young people about them being in care or other information.
Young people who have been through the care system are
more likely to leave school without any qualifications
than other young people.
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Employment
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The Promise:
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Young people
who work will be protected so that they are safe, they
are well treated and they are paid properly. |
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What you
told us:
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Young people
are not all treated equally in their paid work. Some people
are well paid but most are not. Many young people have
to do the hard and unpleasant jobs whereas older people
are, they feel, treated with more respect.
The laws relating to young people and paid work are very
old and not, you feel, very suitable for today’s situation.
Neither are they enforced. Employers who break the law
do not appear to be prosecuted. |
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Knowledge
of the Convention
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The Promise:
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All children,
young people and adults will be told about the Convention
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What we found
out:
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Most of the
young people we spoke to (68%) have never heard of the
Convention. Some of you have but don’t really know what
it means. However, a lot of you (68%) are interested in
knowing more about it.
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So
What Happens Now?
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Now that we
have found out what you think of how the government is
keeping its promise, what are we going to do?
All of this information will be given to the United Nations,
to young people, to adults who work with young people,
to government officials and to our Assembly Members. We
have made lots of suggestions in our main report about
making things better for children and young people in
Northern Ireland.
We will be running workshops and training events to tell
young people and adults about what we found out. These
workshops will also explore
how we can improve things. We will be watching closely
all of the actions of the government and of the Assembly
to make sure that they keep their promise. We need your
help to do this. Tell your parents, friends, teachers,
youth workers, social workers and any other adults you
know about the Convention. Tell us in the Children’s Law
Centre and Save the Children if you are being treated
unfairly. Ask us about getting more information about
the Convention. Ask us to help you about bringing the
Convention into your school, youth club or community centre.
Join the Children’s Law Centre Young Person’s Group.
The Convention is a promise to all children and young
people - help us to make sure it’s a promise that’s kept.
Why not email us and join click below |
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Copies of the
full report are available from the Children’s Law Centre,
telephone 028 90 245704 or from
Save the Children, telephone 028 90 431123 or you may
print this summary page
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