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Ten is Too Young Coalition Welcomes Tabling of Amendment to Raise the Minimum Age of Criminal Responsibility to 16

27 February 2026
Sam Nelson
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Categories: News, Press Release

26 February 2026

The Ten is Too Young Coalition has welcomed the tabling of an amendment to the Justice Bill that would raise Northern Ireland’s minimum age of criminal responsibility (MACR) from 10 to 16 years old, without exception.

The Coalition has once again reiterated its position that at 10 years old, Northern Ireland’s age of criminal responsibility is too young. It said the latest amendment that has been tabled is the most evidence-based and rights compliant, and marks an historic opportunity to finally end Northern Ireland’s status as having one of the lowest ages of criminal responsibility in the world.

For more than 30 years, children’s organisations, experts in child development and human rights bodies have been calling for meaningful reform, with victims’ advocates now also joining the calls. The support to raise the age is now widespread.

Chris Quinn, Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People, said: “We strongly welcome the tabling of the amendment setting the age at 16 with no exceptions.

“For over 30 years, organisations working with children have been clear, Northern Ireland’s current age of 10 is indefensible. It is out of step with international standards, out of step with science and out of step with the values we claim to hold about protecting children.

“This is a once in a generation chance to make our justice system fairer, safer and more effective. We cannot look back in years to come and realise we missed it.”

Fergal McFerran, Policy and Public Affairs Manager at the Children’s Law Centre, said: “Raising the age of criminal responsibility to 16 is not only the most rights compliant option – it is the approach that provides the best opportunity to deliver better outcomes for children, families and communities.

“Over a decade of scientific evidence tells us that children under 16 simply do not have the cognitive maturity to be held criminally responsible in the same way as adults. Criminalising them at 10 years old is wholly inconsistent with what we know about child development, and how we treat children with respect to other laws.

“What’s more, criminalising children simply doesn’t work. We know that 10 is too young, and MLAs now need to grasp this opportunity to support the most child rights compliant change to legislation as possible.”

The Ten is Too Young Coalition stressed that while it welcomes all efforts to raise the age, 16 without exceptions is the only option fully aligned with international children’s rights standards, including the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and General Comment No. 24, which encourages states to move towards 15 or 16 in line with developmental science.

The Coalition also cautioned against introducing exceptions for certain offences, citing clear UN guidance that exceptions are not grounded in evidence and undermine the purpose of the reform.

The Ten is Too Young Coalition is urging all MLAs to:

  • Recognise that 10 is too young, and that criminalising children does not work.
  • Maximise this opportunity by supporting the strongest amendment available.
  • Recognise that children in conflict with the law are overwhelmingly vulnerable children, and those in need.
  • Prioritise approaches that reduce reoffending, prevent future victims and give children the chance to turn their lives around.

With multiple amendments now tabled – seeking to set the age at 12 in some cases, 14 in some cases, and most recently to 16 – the Coalition is urging MLAs to ensure this long overdue issue receives full and serious debate in the Assembly chamber.

Children’s Rights Cannot be an Afterthought for the PSNI

3 December 2024
Sam Nelson
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Categories: News

03 December 2024

A new review of children and young people and policing, published by the NI Policing Board, has highlighted the scale of human rights breaches facing children and young people when in contact with the police.

The report highlights a range of issues of serious concern, repeatedly raised over many years by the Children’s Law Centre, including concerns around uses of force, misuse of police powers, the lack of disaggregated data, issues around arrest and custody arrangements, the practice of strip-searching children, the low age of criminal responsibility and much more.

The report represents the most substantive effort by the NI Policing Board to examine the human rights implications for children of policing practice in Northern Ireland in over a decade.

Fergal McFerran, Policy and Public Affairs Manager at the Children’s Law Centre commented on the report saying:

“This report clearly demonstrates that the foot has well and truly come off the pedal in terms of scrutiny of these issues over the last decade. As a result, when the PSNI should have been embedding human rights protections for children and young people in how they operate, they have instead regressed.

“Increased scrutiny over the last number of years, driven by the Children’s Law Centre and others, has highlighted a growing range of concerns, with children’s human rights too often looking like an afterthought, if at all.

“The Children’s Law Centre welcomes this attempt to catalogue the range of children’s rights issues and breaches. That includes efforts to highlight international obligations and best practice, as well as the views of children themselves. However, and worryingly, the range and seriousness of the challenges which exist are too often not reflected in the final recommendations.

“What is absolutely clear is that significant improvements in policing practices are urgently required. This includes getting back to the core of human rights centred policing, a change of attitude from police towards children and young people, and the need for the PSNI and others responsible for policing, to genuinely listen to the views and experiences of children and young people and act on the concerns they raise.”

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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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.

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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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