Contents

Roisin Bradley's Speech Bill of Rights Event 20 Aug 2003

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

Young Person's Guide to Bill of Rights

In March 1999 the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission was set up. One of its tasks was to come up with suggestions for a new Northern Ireland Bill of Rights.

Before doing this the Human Rights Commission decided that it needed to ask other people in Northern Ireland about what they would like to see in a Bill of Rights. Voluntary groups like Save the Children and the Children's Law Centre saw this as a great opportunity to make sure that the ideas that children and young people have got heard so we decided to get involved in the Bill of Rights Project.

First we trained and spoke with over 30 people who work with young people from a wide variety of backgrounds such as young people with disabilities, young parents, young people in the care and justice systems, young people excluded from school and young people who have been directly affected by the conflict.

We started this project in the summer of 2000, planning the training sessions and gathering materials from the Human Rights Commission. In September 2000 we ran the training and from then to the end of January 2001 those workers worked with their own young people to come uup with suggestions for the Northern Ireland Bill of Rights.

In total 80 young people from 10 different groups throughout Northern Ireland took part in the Bill of Rights Project. In February 2001 they all met together with a number of Commissioners and staff members from the Human Rights Commission to tell them what they wanted to see in a Bill of Rights.