A Bill of Rights for All of Us

Children's voices need to be heard in the Human Rights Commission's Bill of Rights consultation. That is the message The Children's Law Centre, Save the Children and 70 young people will be giving Human Rights Commissioners, when the submissions prepared by the young people over 6 months, are presented to the Human Rights Commission on

Thursday 8 February at 7.00 p.m.
in the
Indian Community Centre, Clifton Street, Belfast

The young people, aged between 12 - 21 years, come from communities of young people whose voices are rarely heard by decision makers. Some of the young people have been excluded from school, others have lost family members in the troubles or are young parents. For them the Bill of Rights is an important opportunity to ensure the negative experiences they have had never happen to other young people.

"The Bill of Rights the Commission is consulting on has big implications for all children and young people here. We want to make sure that issues which affect young people are included in this Bill so that all young people will have their rights protected in the future" commented Elizabeth Kelly for youth@clc who was involved in drafting one of the submissions to the Commission.

Paula Rodgers, Policy & Research Manager, Save the Children comments:
"The drafting of the Bill is an important event at the start of a new century and provides a perfect opportunity to create legislation and structures to effectively safeguard the rights of children and young people."

Teresa Geraghty, Children's Law Centre, adds:
"We know from experience that a lot of young people are not consulted in key processes which have profound implications for their lives. In drafting the Bill of Rights it is essential that the Human Rights Commission listen to the voices of children and young people and genuinely take on board the rights issues they raise with them. This is just one step in that process".

Ends