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UN to be Told Budget Cuts Will Compound Growing Number of Children’s Rights Breaches

16 May 2023
Sam Nelson
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Categories: News

16 May 2023

The Children’s Law Centre will lead a delegation, including 8 young people, to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child with a view to raising concern about breaches of children’s rights and how proposed budget cuts will adversely impact on children’s rights.

The Centre had previously submitted three damning reports, written by Dr Deena Haydon, and presented evidence to the Committee highlighting significant failures to protect children and young people in Northern Ireland.

Since then over two hundred leading organisations and individuals have endorsed a letter from the Children’s Law Centre to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland outlining concern around the impact of budget cuts. The letter stated that cuts to services will cause active harm to children and young people. The Centre will now raise the concerns with the Committee, saying the cuts will compound the growing problems facing children and young people and lead to an increasing number of rights breaches.

Image of a lot of organisations logos, with text overlay reading: 'Over 200 organisations and individuals sign letter saying cuts will harm children

Speaking ahead of the visit, Fergal McFerran, Policy and Public Affairs Manager at the Children’s Law Centre said:

“We have already made a strong case to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, outlining our concerns around the increasing number of failures in regards to children’s rights protections. Our previous delegation gave a clear account of the many challenges facing children and young people in Northern Ireland, with rights protections being eroded rather than extended.

“In the short time since we presented to the Committee in February, the situation has become even worse, with the budget announced by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Chris Heaton-Harris, set to cause active harm to children and young people.

“We wrote a letter to the Secretary of State which was signed by over 200 organisations and individuals outlining our concerns around the impact it will have on children’s rights and equality. We will now be raising this in Geneva. “We look forward to engaging further with the Committee and we are expecting strong recommendations in June. The focus must then be on swift implementation to give children and young people the protections they deserve.”

The delegation will be made up of children and young people from Youth@CLC, Include Youth, Voice of Young People in Care (VOYPIC) and Northern Ireland Youth Forum, funded by Paul Hamlyn Foundation. It will also include children’s rights experts and will aim to secure strong recommendations from the Committee as part of the UK Government examination process.

What is the UNCRC examination process?

The UK Government signed up to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in 1990 and it was ratified in 1991. By ratifying the UNCRC, the UK Government have a duty under international law to make sure the rights of all children and young people in Northern Ireland are protected, and to work towards making these rights a reality in law.

The UK Government must report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child every five years to explain how well they are protecting children’ rights in Northern Ireland. The Committee then make concluding observations and recommendations for the UK Government to implement. The Children’s Law Centre leads the Northern Ireland voluntary sector in submitting evidence to inform the examination process. The Centre’s youth panel, youth@CLC, also submits a children and young people’s report.

Image of three report covers with accompanying text reading: 'Damning reports show how a regression in rights is harming children'
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Cuts to Services Will Harm a Generation of Children

3 May 2023
Sam Nelson
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Categories: News

03 May 2023

Over 200 organisations and individuals write to Secretary of State for Northern Ireland calling for a reversal of recent budget decisions

Concern raised around potential breach of statutory duties and failure to assess the impact of decisions

We have now stopped accepting signatures and are updating the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Chris Heaton-Harris, with the final list of endorsements. Thank you to the 200+ who signed the letter. We will continue to work to protect children from harm

Over 200 organisations and individuals have jointly signed a letter written to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Chris Heaton-Harris, raising concern around the impact of budget decisions and cuts to services. The letter urges the Secretary of State to reconsider the budget decisions and immediately assess the impact on children and young people.

Read the letter

After submitting the letter, Fergal McFerran, Policy and Public Affairs Manager at the Children’s Law Centre, said:

“The budget and the cuts to services flowing from it will cause active harm to a generation of children and young people. We have had weeks of announcements signalling cuts to children’s support and early intervention services that will cause significant long-term harm to many.

“The way in which these decisions are being made is an affront to children’s rights and equality. Despite having a statutory duty to assess the impact and to protect children, particularly children who are disadvantaged or have additional needs, these services are the first to go.

“Many children and young people, as well as their parents, guardians and carers, are already at breaking point. There is a crisis in mental health for our young people, a complete failure around services for children with special educational needs and disabilities, and unacceptable numbers of children living in poverty. Yet, budget decisions are targeting these groups of children directly.

“Rather than cutting children’s services, we must look at how we better protect our children and young people. We should be strengthening laws to ensure they have full access to services that support their survival and development. We should be making decisions that are in their best interests, rather than knowingly subjecting them to future harm.”

The full list of endorsements include:

Acrewood Daycare

Action For Children

Action Mental Health

Advice NI

Altram

An Droichead

Angel Eyes NI

ARC Healthy Living Centre Ltd

Ardoyne Youth Enterprise

BAAT (British Association of Art Therapists)

BACP (British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy)

BADth (British Association of Dramatherapists)

BAMT (British Association for Music Therapy)

Barnardo’s NI

BASW NI (British Association of Social Workers Northern Ireland)

Beechmount Sure Start

Belfast City Council

Belfast Interface Project

Bishop Street Youth Club

Blackfort Adolescent Gestalt Institute

Bloomfield Community Association

Breda Academy

Cara-Friend

Carrickfergus Hub Improving Lives Locally (CHILL)

Chartered Institute of Housing

Cherish Sure Start

Children’s Law Centre

CiNI (Children in Northern Ireland)

Cliftonville Community Regeneration Forum

CO3 (Chief Officers 3rd Sector)

Colin Early Intervention Community

Colin Neighbourhood Partnership

Common Youth

Community Development & Health Network

Contact

Conway Education Centre

Corpus Christi Youth Centre

Creggan Youth Drop-in

Crumlin Ardoyne Neighbourhood Renewal Partnership

CyberSyd

Disability Action NI

Dyslexia Awareness NI

Early Years

East Belfast Sure Start

EastSide Learning

Ecojustice Ireland

Employers for Childcare

Enagh Youth Forum

Engage Project

Extern

Family Mediation NI

Focus The Identity Trust

Foodstock

Footprints Women’s Centre

Forward South Partnership

Foyle Down Syndrome Trust

Full Service Community Network

Giggles Early Years

Glenbrook Sure Start

Glen Community Parent Youth Group

Greater Shantallow Area Partnership

Greenway Women’s Centre

Harberton Special School and Outreach Services

Hazelwood Integrated College

HERe NI

Holy Family Youth Centre

Holy Trinity College

Holywell Trust

Human Rights Consortium

Include Youth

Ionad Uíbh Eachach

Kids Together Belfast

Lagmore Youth Project

Law Centre NI

Lifestart Foundation

Longtower Youth Club

LORAG (Lower Ormeau Residents Action Group)

Mae Murray Foundation

Matchbox Youth Club

Melted Parents NI

Mencap

Menstruation Matters Belfast

Mid and East Antrim Borough Council

Migrant Centre NI

MindWise

Mornington Community Project

NAHT NI (National Association of Head Teachers NI)

National Autistic Society NI

National Children’s Bureau

National Education Union

National Energy Action NI

NDCS (National Deaf Children’s Society)

Nexus

NI Council for Racial Equality

NICVA (Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action)

NI Rural Women’s Network

Niamh Louise Foundation

NIAPN (NI Anti-Poverty Network)

NIBPS (Northern Ireland Branch of the British Psychological Society)

NIPSA (Northern Ireland Public Service Alliance)

North West Community Network

Northwest Youth Services

Northern Ireland Women’s Budget Group

Northern Ireland Youth Forum

NUS-USI (Nation Union of Students – Union of Students in Ireland)

Our Streets Derry

Parent Action NI

Parenting NI

Parkview Special School

Phoenix Law

Playtime Day Nursery Eskra

Playboard

Poleglass Community Association at Sally Gardens

Positive Futures

PPR (Participation and Practice of Rights)

Quaker Service

Queen’s Students’ Union

Rainbow Child and Family Centre

Reclaim the Agenda

Relate NI

Relatives for Justice

Relax Kids Belfast

RNIB NI (Royal National Institute of Blind People)

Rural Community Network

Saól Úr Sure Start

Save the Children NI

SENAC (Special Educational Needs Advice Centre)

Sense NI

Shimna Integrated College

Simon Community

Sleepy Hollow Group

Sólás Special Needs Charity

South Belfast Sure Start

SSUNI (Secondary Students’ Union NI)

St. Mary’s Christian Brothers’ Grammar School

St. Mary’s Limavady

St. Mary’s Youth Club, Creggan

St. Peters Immaculata Youth Centre

St. Ronan’s Primary School Newry

Start360

STEP (South Tyrone Empowerment Programme)

Surestart Edenballymore

Sustrans

The Bytes Project

The Fostering Network

The Larder Belfast

The Rainbow Project

Trussell Trust

UNISON

Unite the Union

UTU (Ulster Teachers’ Union)

Voice of Young People in Care (VOYPIC)

West Belfast Partnership Board

WheelWorks Arts

Whiterock Children’s Centre

Women’s Regional Consortium

Women’s Resource and Development Agency

Women’s Support Network

Women’s Aid Federation Northern Ireland

Women’s Platform

Youth Engagement Service

Young Enterprise NI

Youth Work Alliance

Youth Action NI

Youth Empowerment And Resilience (YEAR) Project

Youth First Youth Club

Youth Initiatives

Adrian Walsh, Principal, St. Colm’s High School, Belfast

Alan Law, Chairperson – Education Trade Union Group – NIC-ICTU

Ciaran White BL

Deborah Erwin, Youth Engagement Consultant

Deirdre McAliskey, A Way With Words

Deirdre Shakespeare, Harry’s Law

Dr Bronagh Byrne, Senior Lectuer in Social Policy, Queen’s University People

Dr Ciara Fitzpatrick, Ulster University

Dr Deena Haydon

Dr Dominic McSherry, Reader in Psychology, Ulster University

Dr Fiona Bloomer, Senior Lecturer, Ulster University

Dr Gillian Kane, Lecturer in Law, Ulster University

Dr Karen Hagan, Open University

Dr Karen Orr, Stranmillis University College

Dr Liam O’Hare, Queen’s University Belfast

Dr Lucy Royal-Dawson, Ulster University

Dr Raied Al-Wazzan

Dr Siobhán McAlister, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Queen’s University, Belfast

Dr Suzanne Mooney, Senior Lecturer in Social Work, Queen’s University Belfast

Dr Una Convery, Lecturer in Criminology, Ulster University

Emmet McAleer, Independent Councillor

Goretti Horgan, Senior Lecturer in Social Policy, Ulster University

Jackie Redpath, Greater Shankhill Partnership

Katrina Crilly, Principal, St. Patrick’s College, Maghera

Koulla Yiasouma, Former NI Commissioner for Children and Young People

Madeleine Leonard, Professor Emeritus, School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work, Queen’s University, Belfast

Phil Scraton, Professor Emeritus, School of Law, Queen’s University, Belfast

Professor Andrew Percy, Queen’s University Belfast

Professor Anne-Marie McAlinden, Queen’s University Belfast

Professor Colin Harvey, Queen’s University Belfast

Professor Laura Lundy, Queen’s University Belfast

Professor Rory O’Connell, Ulster University

Professor Victoria Simms, Professor of Developmental Psychology, Ulster University

Sinead Kyle BL

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Childhood and Equal Protection for Children

29 April 2023
Sam Nelson
No comments
Categories: News

30 April 2023

As the law stands currently, parents and carers can use “reasonable” force to discipline their children in Northern Ireland.

The Children’s Law Centre, along with other organisations that advocate on behalf of children, have long campaigned to remove the defence of reasonable chastisement.

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child have also called to “prohibit as a matter of priority all corporal punishment in the family, including through the repeal of all legal defences, such as “reasonable chastisement”.

Northern Ireland is lagging behind the Republic of Ireland, Scotland and Wales (and indeed many other countries around the world) in relation to giving children equal protection from assault.

Research commissioned in 2017 by the NI Children’s Commissioner shows that views about physical punishment are changing, with the majority of people in NI now supporting children being legally protected from hitting, smacking and assault.

However, for those that say, “well it never did me any harm”, Roald Dahl writes about physical punishment in his autobiography ‘Boy: Tales of Childhood’ and while his experience is in the context of school, the message remains the same:

“By now I am sure you will be wondering why I lay so much emphasis upon school beatings in these pages. The answer is that I cannot help it. All through my school life I was appalled by the fact that masters and senior boys were allowed literally to wound other boys, and sometimes quite severely.

I couldn’t get over it. I never have got over it.

It would, of course, be unfair to suggest that all masters were constantly beating the daylights out of all the boys in those days. They weren’t. Only a few did so, but that was quite enough to leave a lasting impression of horror upon me.

It left another more physical impression upon me as well. Even today, whenever I have to sit for any length of time on a hard bench or chair, I begin to feel my heart beating along the old lines that the cane made on my bottom some fifty-five years ago.”

Research has shown that the physical punishment of children is ineffective as a method of discipline and confirms that positive parenting has much better outcomes.

Professor Sir Michael Marmot, UCL, writing in the forward of a report which reviewed the effects of physical punishment on the child and in the family sums it up well:

 “The international evidence could not be any clearer – physical punishment has the potential to damage children and carries the risk of escalation into physical abuse”.

Given the established evidence outlining the harm physical punishment causes children and the repeated calls from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child to ban physical punishment in the home, it should be a priority for decision makers in this jurisdiction to remove the defence of reasonable punishment, therefore prohibiting all forms of physical punishment in the home. CLC would also encourage the implementation of comprehensive government support for parents to develop positive parenting skills.

Our children deserve equal protection. It’s past time we delivered it for them.

Image of report front cover with text reading 'NI NGO Stakeholder Report 2 - Endorsed by over 50 organisations and individuals'
We raised the case for removing the defence of reasonable punishment in our NI NGO Stakeholder Report 2.
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Plastic Bullets Still A Threat 25 Years After The Good Friday Agreement

17 April 2023
Sam Nelson
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Categories: News

18 April 2023

As we reflect on the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, Paddy Kelly, Director at the Children’s Law Centre, has spoken of her disappointment that Attenuating Energy Projectiles (AEPs), commonly referred to as plastic bullets are still being used on children.

The ‘Patten Report’, provided for in the Good Friday Agreement, reported in 1999 as part of the programme of reform of policing. The report recognised the lethal nature of plastic bullets and recommended that an ‘immediate and substantial investment should be made in a research programme to find an acceptable, effective and less potentially lethal alternative to the Plastic Baton Round’.

Despite this recommendation, and the fact that 17 people including eight children were killed by plastic and rubber bullets during the conflict, AEPs are still used by the PSNI. Northern Ireland is the only jurisdiction in the UK where AEPs are used during public order policing, despite recommendations from international human rights bodies calling on a total ban.

Image of report front cover with text reading 'NI NGO Stakeholder Report 2 - Endorsed by over 50 organisations and individuals'
Download: NI NGO Stakeholder Report 2

The Children’s Law Centre submitted evidence to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in December 2022 and presented to the Committee in February 2023, once again highlighting the continued use of AEPs in Northern Ireland and the dangers they present to children and young people. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child is due to publish fresh recommendations this year.

Paddy Kelly, Director at the Children’s Law Centre, said:

“The Good Friday Agreement has left us all in a far better place, but when we look at the progress achieved around policing, the continued use of plastic bullets, including against children, remains a cause of serious concern and is not compliant with the recommendations of international human rights bodies.

“The ‘Patten Report’, which flowed from the Good Friday Agreement, recommended investment to find an acceptable, effective and less potentially lethal alternative to the Plastic Baton Round. That has not happened. AEPs of their very nature pose a significant and potentially lethal threat to children and young people.

Image of Paddy Kelly with pull quote reading: "The Good Friday Agreement has left us all in a far better place, but when we look at the progress achieved around policing, the continued use of plastic bullets, including against children, remains a cause of serious concern".

“It is hard to comprehend why the use of AEPs continues in Northern Ireland, while they are deemed far too dangerous for use in the rest of the UK. Indeed, in 2011, following riots in England, a Home Affairs Committee Report concluded that it would be ‘inappropriate as well as dangerous’ to use baton rounds to police public order disturbances. Yet they continue to be used in Northern Ireland, with the most recent statistics showing they were used on at least one child in the last reporting year.

“We cannot continue to ignore the evidence that the use of AEPs can be lethal. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child have twice issued strong recommendations, in 2008 and 2016, calling for a complete ban and highlighting the dangers. Twenty-five years after the Good Friday Agreement, the Children’s Law Centre, yet again, have had to raise at the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child the continued use on children of these potentially lethal weapons.

“It is beyond time that we deliver on the Good Friday Agreement, underpinned by rights and equal protection, by finally banning the use of AEPs in Northern Ireland.”

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Children’s Law Centre Secures Investigation and Review of PSNI Strip-Searches on Children

10 March 2023
Sam Nelson
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Categories: News

13 March 2023

Image of siren with headline included

The Northern Ireland Policing Board’s Human Rights adviser will investigate and review PSNI strip searches of children and young people in custody. The investigation follows work by the Children’s Law Centre to raise concerns around the practice.

In announcing the Terms of Reference, the Policing Board highlighted two key concerns, including the evidential basis for conducting strip searches and the lack of an appropriate adult being present in most cases.

In January 2023, the Children’s Law Centre uncovered a number of concerning statistics highlighting the absence of items found in most cases of a strip search and concern around the threshold being used to justify strip searches, the overwhelming majority of which took place without an appropriate adult present.

Image of a report with quote from the Terms of Reference reading: "The issue was originally raised by organisations in the children's sector at a PSNI youth champions meeting in May 2022 with more in-depth discussion from the Children's Law Centre and reporting within the media."

Following the announcement of the Terms of Reference for the investigation and review, Fergal McFerran, of the Children’s Law Centre, said:

“The Children’s Law Centre welcomes this investigation. We have consistently raised our concerns around the strip-searching of children and young people by the PSNI. We are pleased that Policing Board members and the Human Rights Adviser have taken our concerns seriously.

“We believe the commissioning of this investigation is itself a sign that serious concerns in relation to the practice of strip-searching children remain unanswered. We hope the investigation will bring the appropriate levels of scrutiny and we have no doubt there will be serious failings identified. It is right that the actions of the PSNI on this issue are carefully examined.

“From the information we have been able to uncover, we know that in almost all cases, nothing is found as a result of a strip-search. It is our view that this demonstrates the lack of justification for using such an invasive use of force on children, some of whom have been as young as 14.”

Image of scared child with a pull quote from Fergal McFerran reading: "We hope the investigation will bring appropriate levels of scrutiny and we have no doubt there will be serious failings identified."

The Northern Ireland Policing Board’s Terms of Reference for the review can be found here.

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