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Youth@CLC Launch Children and Young People’s Survey

14 March 2022
Sam Nelson
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Categories: News

14 March 2022

Image of the 'Rights Here, Right Now' logo

Youth@CLC, the youth advisory panel at the Children’s Law Centre, has launched an important survey to collect opinions and first-hand experiences of children and young people as part of the UK reporting process to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. The survey will be used to tell the UN Committee what matters to under-18s here, how their rights can be better protected, and their lives improved.

Image states: Tell us your thoughts. Click here to complete survey.

The survey can be found here and is open between 14th March and 14th April 2022. The results of the survey will inform a children and young people’s report to the UN Committee as part of the 2022-2023 reporting process. It will influence the outcome of the UN Committee’s examination of the UK government in 2023.

Children and young people can click here to find out more about children’s rights, the UNCRC and the survey.

CLC Youth Participation Worker, Sinead McSorley said: “This is a very important way for children and young people in this jurisdiction to feed into the UNCRC reporting process. Their experiences and opinions are key to understanding if the UK government is fulfilling the obligations it signed up for when it ratified the UNCRC in 1991. We know children’s rights have a massive impact on the lives of children and young people, from education and healthcare to leisure and youth justice. However, we can’t fully understand how well these rights are being protected, or where the gaps are, unless we get the views of as many under-18s as possible.”

Image of girl in wheel chair, with text reading: "Rights Here, Right Now. Children and Young People's Survey. For the young people's report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. Open between 14th March - 14th April."

“The last UNCRC report was sent to the Committee in 2015, but so much has happened since then, including the UK’s decision to exit the European Union and the outbreak of COVID-19. It’s our experience, and the experience of a wide number of children’s organisations, that the gap in children’s rights here has grown into a chasm. It’s vital that we gather the views of children and young people to better inform our understanding.”

Wren, a member of Youth@CLC, said: “As part of the children and young people’s report, we will be carrying out a survey and holding workshops with some of the most vulnerable children and young people here to better understand where the government might be failing in its obligations. It’s really important that we gather as many views as possible to give children and young people a real voice. The reporting process doesn’t come around every year, so please make sure you don’t miss this opportunity to have your say.”

We have developed some materials for teachers and youth workers to prepare and assist children and young people to complete the survey:

The ‘Rights Here, Right Now’ survey is being conducted by Youth@CLC, with assistance from the Children’s Law Centre, Dr Deena Haydon and Save the Children NI

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Two-Tier Immigration Plan Sends ‘Horse and Cart’ Through Children’s Rights

17 May 2021
Sam Nelson
No comments
Categories: News

17 May 2021

The Children’s Law Centre has raised alarm at the UK Government’s New Plan for Immigration and the impact it will have by curtailing children’s rights, placing vulnerable children in extreme danger. The alarm was raised after the Home Office consulted on the new plan and measures were announced in the Queen’s speech.

Find the CLC consultation response here

Immigration lawyers at the Children’s Law Centre say the plans water down child protection safeguards, place children at increased risk of exploitation and trample on devolved matters.

Speaking after hearing confirmation of new measures in the Queens’ Speech, an immigration solicitor from the Children’s Law Centre, Maria McCloskey said: “The proposed New Plan for Immigration creates a two-tier immigration system that will put vulnerable and traumatised children in harm’s way by sending a horse and cart through children’s rights and protections. It runs contrary to important obligations under international law, tramples on domestic laws and encroaches on devolved issues in Northern Ireland.

“The general tone and intent of the sweeping changes is deeply concerning. There is a well-established international framework for providing sanctuary and security to asylum seekers and the UK Government is proposing a seismic shift away from this. The continued assertion that routes are illegal, when it is well established that this is in fact contrary to the Refugee Convention is troubling. There is also a constant effort to attribute criminality to a group of people who are in fact the victims of criminality. There is no such thing as a good and bad refugee, just people fleeing for safety.

“At the Children’s Law Centre, we provide legal assistance to the majority of separated children and unaccompanied asylum-seeking children who arrive in Northern Ireland. We are talking about very traumatised, scared and vulnerable children. Under these new rules they would be treated as a separate and secondary tier of asylum seeker, by refusing to grant them full refugee status and the ability to remain in the UK. We have no doubt the changes will put them at increased risk of exploitation, act as a barrier to protection and add significant trauma to an already challenging process.

Read analysis of the changes from CLC immigration solicitors here

“Instead of placing children in more danger, the Home Office should be looking at ways to improve rights protections for children. They should be working on ways to provide legal routes for family reunification, ensuring primary decision making is improved, and making decisions that are lawful in the first instance. If tackling people smuggling is the aim, then provide safe and legal routes for asylum seekers.

“Children should not be punished for their nationality or immigration status. They should be protected from harm.”

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