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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
No comments
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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Stop & Search Highlights ‘Systematic Targeting’ of Children & Young People

2 March 2021
Sam Nelson
No comments
Categories: News

02 March 2021

Children and young people are being systematically targeted through the disproportionate use of stop and search powers in Northern Ireland. New statistics have revealed that children between the age of 13 and 17 make up only 6% of the population but account for 12% of all stop and searches in Northern Ireland, with rates reaching even higher in areas of deprivation. This reflects a continuing trend.

The disproportionate use of stop and search powers on children and young people is also shown to be hugely ineffective, with only 4% of stop and searches of 13 to 17 year olds leading to arrest. This is twice as ineffective when compared to other age groups and questions if the use of stop and search in many cases was appropriate and legal.

Claire Kemp, Policy Officer at the Children’s Law Centre said:

“These statistics yet again demonstrate a systematic targeting of children and young people with the ineffective use of stop and search powers. This is a continuing trend and is deeply troubling. The evidence would suggest that this is a policy decision on the part of the PSNI.

“When dealing with children and young people, the PSNI should be taking additional caution when using stop and search powers. Instead there is a very clear trend suggesting that children and young people are being targeted because of their age. They are more likely to be stopped, but this is less likely to lead to arrest.

“The practice is disproportionate and ineffective, but it goes even further than that. In areas of high deprivation, the rates are even more worrying and severely undermines children and young people’s confidence in the police. In the end, this has a negative impact on the safety and protection of children and young people who make up around 12% of all victims of crime. These young people rely on the police, but the disproportionate and inappropriate use of stop and search powers has the effect of making young people less trusting of police and therefore less likely to turn to them for help, placing them more at risk.”

If you want to know more about your stop and search rights, just ask REE, our legal advice bot for children and young people aged 13 – 17 at www.reerights.com. You can also request to speak to a live legal adviser.

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