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.”

To book, email claire@childrenslawcentre.org

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva recently told the Government that it needs to do more to make sure all children and young people enjoy their rights and achieve their full potential. The UK Government has to listen to the Committee’s advice because it signed up to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991.

The Committee’s advice to the UK Government (including the NI Assembly) was influenced by the views and experiences of over 1000 children and young people in Northern Ireland. This included a delegation of children and young people from Northern Ireland who met with the Committee directly in Geneva.

Seven leading organisations have organised an event for children and young people to discuss and learn more about the recent concluding observations and recommendations from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.

The event will also give children and young people a chance to question a panel of people in key roles who are responsible for making decisions that impact on children and young people’s lives.

If you, or any of the children and young people you work with, are interested in attending the event, or you would like more information on the event details, please contact claire@childrenslawcentre.org

The Children’s Law Centre have also produced a children and young people’s summary document of the UN Committee’s concluding observations. Alongside this, a teaching resource has been produced to help children and young people better understand the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the concluding observations and the importance to children’s lives.

The event is being organised by:

• Children’s Law Centre
• Angel Eyes NI
• Include Youth
• NI Commissioner for Children and Young People (NICCY)
• NI Youth Forum
• Voice of Young People in Care (VOYPIC)
• NI Youth Assembly

The event is kindly being hosted by Ulster University.