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Author: Sam Nelson

Blog: Give Us Votes at 16

2 August 2024
Sam Nelson
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Categories: Blog

6th August 2024

In this blog, Eva Bradley, talks about why she is passionate about securing the vote for 16 and 17 year olds and her activism as part of Politics in Action.

Written by Eva Bradley

Article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political rights explains that every citizen shall have the right and opportunity to vote in elections, which shall be by “universal and equal suffrage”. Lowering the voting age to 16 is the next logical step on the journey to making our democratic system more accessible and inclusive.

In the past number of years, many countries, including Austria, Brazil, Scotland and Wales have lowered the voting age to 16. This has sparked debate and conversation all over the UK about lowering the voting age, and about the participation of young people in our democracy.

Image of young person with a megaphone. Pull quote reads: "Having the right to vote will help give young people the democratic voice they deserve" - Eva Bradley

As a 17 year old, I only missed out on being able to vote in this election by about eight months. However, despite not being able to vote, this didn’t stop me, or many other young people, from very closely following the election results.

For years now, I’ve been highly interested in politics and involved in youth activism, and I recently joined the Votes at 16 campaign group. I have always been very passionate about youth participation in democracy and specifically the right to vote at the age of 16. There are so many reasons why, but one of the main ones for me was that at 16 you can work and be taxed. If you are paying into the system, you should always have the right to vote.

Something I often hear from people who are opposed to lowering the voting age is that 16 and 17 year olds are too immature and aren’t educated enough to vote. While it is true that here in Northern Ireland our political education isn’t great, our campaign is also advocating for better political education in our curriculum. Giving our young people the right to vote would be a crucial aspect of political education. They can go from learning about politics at school to actively participating in our electoral democracy. Many young people aged 16 and 17 are already highly politically engaged. A lot are very political without even realising it!

Lowering the voting age to 16 has so many benefits. There has been evidence from Scotland, where the voting age was lowered to 16 in 2013, that 16 and 17 year olds there who started voting at this young age were likely to continue voting throughout their life. Many experts believe this makes a great case for lowering the voting age to 16 everywhere.

Image of a poster at a protest. The poster has a drawing of earth, with the text 'system change, not climate change'. Pull quote reads: "Being able to vote from age 16 would ensure that politicians take us young people seriously in the matters that affect us, giving  us a say on issues that will impact our present and future."

In 2014, 75% of 16 and 17 year olds voted in the independence referendum in Scotland, and 95% of them said they’d vote again.

Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child recognises a young person’s right to express their views freely “in all matters affecting the child, the views of the child being given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child”. Being able to vote from age 16 would ensure that politicians take us young people seriously in the matters that affect us, giving  us a say on issues that will impact our present and future – particularly when it comes to the climate crisis. As young people, we will have to live with the consequences if we don’t take action now.

Having the right to vote will help give young people the democratic voice they deserve. In election campaigning, many parties, including Labour, now the biggest in Parliament, had a commitment to lowering the voting age in their manifestos. I sincerely hope that we see some action on this soon.

You can read more about the Politics in Action Votes at 16 campaign, and sign the petition, at https://www.politicsinaction.org/campaigns/votes-at-16

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CLC Secures New Funding to Empower Children and Young People

19 July 2024
Sam Nelson
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Categories: News

19 July 2024

The Children’s Law Centre has been awarded a grant of almost £500,000 over the next three years from The National Lottery’s Community Fund. The grant will support a new project called Rights Here, Right Now – Empowering Young People to Know Their Rights.

The funding will enable CLC to continue its direct work with children and young people on rights and capacity building as well as providing advice, support and advocacy to children and young people who cannot access services.

The new Rights Here, Right Now project builds on the work CLC completed with young people in the preparation and completion of the reports submitted to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (The CRC) in 2022, as part of the UK examination process.

Reflecting on the Concluding Observations published by The CRC last year the project will empower children and young people to know and understand their rights and give them a voice when dealing with duty holders. It will also enable CLC to raise awareness of children’s rights, engage with more children and young people and develop Youth@CLC as peer educators.

Trevor Wright, Head of Operations at the Children’s Law Centre said: “This is exciting news for CLC and it will directly support and empower children and young people. Over the past decade, we have seen a serious regression in rights protections for children and young people.

“Much of CLC’s advice work supports children and young people who are experiencing barriers accessing services in health and education – this is due to a combination of factors, not least the current funding crisis. This is reflected in a 29% increase in calls to our freephone advice line in the last year.

“Through our research completed prior to submitting this application, children and young people told us that they don’t know enough about their rights. In a survey of over 1,000 children and young people conducted by Youth@CLC in 2022, just over half of respondents said they had heard of children’s rights and knew what they meant. This is despite the UK committing to an international obligation to promote children’s rights among young people.

“We are particularly excited that our Rights Here, Right Now project will help us engage with a wider range of children and young people and empower them by knowing more about their rights.

“Only by knowing their rights can young people fully access those rights, challenge decisions that impact on their lives and reach their full potential.

“We would like to thank The National Lottery for supporting children and young people in this way.”

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Action Needed to Embed Human Rights Compliant Policing

2 July 2024
Sam Nelson
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Categories: News

02 July 2024

The Northern Ireland Policing Board has today published its ‘5 Year Human Rights Review’. The initial summary report demonstrates a need to properly embed human rights compliance within frontline policing. It also highlights that, of the 119 previous recommendations made by the Board over the last five years, only 24 have been implemented by the PSNI.

A number of the key issues mentioned in the report relate to work that the Children’s Law Centre has consistently raised in relation to the policing of children and young people. These include:

  • The misuse and abuse of stop and search powers
  • Strip searching of children and young people in custody
  • Uses of force, including the use of spit hoods on children and young people

Speaking after the report was published, Fergal McFerran, Policy and Public Affairs Manager at the Children’s Law Centre, commented: “The Children’s Law Centre has consistently raised our concerns in relation to a number of areas of policing policy and practice. These have included serious breaches of human rights standards that have been criticised by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child.

“While the summary report claims that the PSNI is human rights aware, the Children’s Law Centre agree with its additional assertion that the PSNI has some distance to go to be truly human rights compliant. That must include a better record in implementing recommendations from the Policing Board, as well as implementing recommendations from international human rights experts.”

Mr McFerran continued: “We welcome that a number of the issues raised by CLC over the past years have been referenced in the summary report. This includes the use of spit hoods, strip searches of children in custody and stop and search.

It is particularly encouraging to see that the ‘Human Rights Review of Children and Young People: Strip Searching in Police Custody’ is recognised as having a significant impact on policing practice. The Children’s Law Centre fought hard to secure this review and will continue to scrutinise the PSNI on the issue.

“However, it is disappointing that previous Board recommendations around spit hoods were ignored. The misuse and abuse of stop and search powers also continues, with the report recognising issues around the low outcome rates and the damaging impact on community relations, as well as the impact on trust in the police by children and young people. The PSNI should also finally get to grips with their duty to record and report community background data.

“Children and young people must be seen as rights holders and the PSNI should act to deliver a policing approach which truly respects and fulfils the human rights of our young people.”

The NI Policing Board’s report can be found at https://www.nipolicingboard.org.uk/publication/human-rights-5-year-review

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Child Rights Experts “Very Concerned” by PSNI Use of Force Statistics

19 June 2024
Sam Nelson
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Categories: News

19 June 2024

The Children’s Law Centre has expressed grave concern at the latest PSNI use of force statistics for the period April 2023 to March 2024. The statistics highlight how spit hoods have been used on children, including at least once on a child under the age of 13.

There has also been a sharp increase in the use of plastic bullets, with child rights experts highlighting the severe risk they pose to children and young people.

The Children’s Law Centre has pointed to the latest concluding observations and recommendations from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child that call for measures to ‘explicitly prohibit, without exception, the use of harmful devices including spit hoods, plastic bullets, attenuating energy projectiles and other electrical discharge weapons against children.

Fergal McFerran, Policy and Public Affairs Manager at the Children’s Law Centre said: “These latest figures from the PSNI continue to leave us very concerned about significant rights breaches on children and young people who have been in contact with the police.

“The increased use of spit hoods on children is particularly worrying, especially as explicit guidance exists which sets out a presumption they should not be used on children at all.

“While there appears to be a lower number of individual children subject to force by the PSNI compared to last year, it is worrying that the figures seem to indicate that more children have been subject to multiple types of force.”

Mr McFerran continued: “It is also important to note what is missing from the statistics. They have not been fully disaggregated by the characteristics protected by Northern Ireland’s equality laws, such as community background and disability.

“The Children’s Law Centre has long-held concerns that uses of force disproportionately impacts children with additional needs, care experienced children and children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

“These latest statistics represent clear breaches of children’s rights and we will continue to raise our concerns with the NI Policing Board.”

Paddy Kelly, Director at the Children’s Law Centre said: “The sharp increase in the use of plastic bullets is shocking. The dangers posed to children by the use of plastic bullets has been clear for a very long time. Indeed, the tragic death of eight children due to plastic bullets is evidence enough.

“The Northern Ireland Policing Board should, as a matter of urgency, ensure the PSNI end the use of Plastic Bullets against children in compliance with the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child’s repeated recommendations.”

Claire Kemp, Policy Officer at the Children’s Law Centre added: “The overuse of Stop and Search powers on children and young people also continues, with 2089 children stopped and searched in the last reporting year, including 56 children aged 12 or under. Of the 2089 children stopped, 74 were subsequently arrested – equating to just 3.7% of an outcome rate.”

The latest use of force statistics can be found at https://www.psni.police.uk/about-us/our-publications-and-reports/official-statistics/statistics-police-use-force

In January 2023, the NI Policing Board published a Human Rights Review of the PSNI’s Use of Force following calls from the Children’s Law Centre and human rights organisations.

The most recent stop and search statistics can be found at https://www.psni.police.uk/about-us/our-publications-and-reports/official-statistics/stop-and-search-statistics

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child’s concluding observations can be found at https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CRC%2FC%2FGBR%2FCO%2F6-7&Lang=en (the recommendation on the use of spit hoods and plastic bullets is at 30(a) on page 9 of the report.

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Blog: Powered By Students, For Students

14 June 2024
Sam Nelson
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Categories: Blog

17 June 2024

Secondary Students Union Northern Ireland (SSUNI), Lauren Bond, highlights the busy work of student activists who are determined to make sure the views of school students are taken into account by decision makers.

Written By Lauren Bond, SSUNI International Officer and President Elect:

Founded in 2020 the Secondary Students Union Northern Ireland (SSUNI) has worked passionately to defend, protect and promote students’ rights in Northern Ireland. We act as a source of support for students by providing them with advocacy experience and opportunities and a space for them to raise their voices on issues affecting them. We work hard to ensure that students are represented in high-level discussions and that those in power consult young people on issues that affect them. SSUNI represents a diverse and passionate community of students through our ‘Member School’ structure. Schools sign up for membership and send students as SSUNI Delegates, providing a space for students from different backgrounds to work progressively and collaboratively together.

SSUNI regularly meet with a range of departments and organisations that shape secondary education such as CCEA, the Department of Education and the Education Training Inspectorate. In these meetings, we represent the interests of students and ensure their views are taken into account by decision-makers. Recently SSUNI met with Education Minister Paul Givan to discuss the issues that matter to young people such as Relationship and Sexuality Education (RSE), Curriculum Reform, Uniform Reform and Life Skills Education in schools.

Additionally, SSUNI has produced numerous reports through our Working Groups, formed with SSUNI Delegates and other interested students in Northern Ireland. One such report is our ‘Let Us Learn’ Learning for Life and Work report, launched at Queen’s University Belfast in December 2023. The report is a comprehensive analysis of young people’s views on the range of topics that LLW covers, such as Political Education, Relationship and Sexuality Education as well as Children’s Rights, Mental Health and Financial Education. In March SSUNI attended a Catalyst School NI Design Lab to present our LLW Report and get teachers’ insights. We also shared ideas on how to progress the recommendations of the report. The report has had numerous mentions in Stormont by MLAs and was featured in the Irish News.

Reform of the ‘CAO’ Applications System and increasing the accessibility of universities in the Republic of Ireland for students in Northern Ireland has been a top priority for SSUNI this year. We’ve met with MLAs and TDs, such as Padraig Delargy and Mairead Farrell, on this issue as well as the Universities Ireland Working Group and the NI Department for the Economy to discuss our recommendations on our ‘#CAOReform’ campaign. Our Vice President, lzzy Fitzpatrick, testified to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Higher Education in Leinster House on the issue in February. SSUNI has led a vocal media campaign on this issue and will continue to push for reforms to ensure students in Northern Ireland can access further education opportunities on the island.

SSUNI is a proud member of the Organising Bureau of European School Students Unions (OBESSU) where I attended their Council of Members in Texel in December. Our President, Ellen Taylor, and I recently travelled to the European Parliament in Brussels to attend the European Youth Forum’s Level Up Event where we joined a range of meetings based on topics such as the use of Al, the role of young people in defending democracy and counter-narratives to hate speech. Alongside this, we met with the Executive Office in Brussels to discuss the need for increased international opportunities for young people in Northern Ireland and the importance of educating young people about European institutions to ensure they can still have a strong voice within Europe. We got involved with the European Parliament’s “Use Your Vote” campaign encouraging young EU Citizens in the UK to vote in the European Parliament elections. SSUNI will continue to work in strong collaboration with OBESSU to defend students’ rights internationally and work collaboratively with student unions across Europe.

SSUNI has had an exceptionally busy year, attending numerous events on child poverty, equality and political education, while also running Working Groups with our Delegates on Mental Health, School Uniforms and Modern Languages. We published our ‘Mini Manifesto’ upon the re-establishment of Stormont, which sets out our priorities for the Executive, and we presented it to the Education Minister during our meeting.

We recently held our first ever in-person ‘Student Assembly’, an annual event where SSUNl’s policy is set and we elect our Executive, who runs the Union on a day-to-day basis. The new Executive will focus on forming a ‘Future of Education’ Working Group; a project in which young people will have the space to visualise what education will look like in the future and identify how we can move education beyond mere exams and assessments. Modern languages will remain a key priority for SSUNI in the coming year as we will launch a report focusing on young people’s views on the Modern Languages Curriculum.

Furthermore, we will continue to campaign on our ‘Let Us Learn’ Report and our Feminist Society will be campaigning on the findings of our ‘Sexism and Sexual Harassment in Schools’ Report.

SSUNI is proud to represent the voices of students and is proudly ‘Powered by Students, for Students’.