Events/Education
SPEAKER: Lee Jerome, School of Education, QUB
DATE: Tuesday 10th March
TIME: 1200 – 1.30pm
VENUE: C2K Room, School of Education, 69/71 University Street, Queen’s University Belfast
REGISTRATION: This is an open and free event, but for numbers please RSVP h.bryson@qub.ac.uk
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child established children’s right to an education which promotes human rights, and established a duty on states to ensure children are informed about their rights. Taken together this provides a warrant for introducing some form of child rights education (CRE), that is, an education which teaches children about their rights and enables them to assume the role of rights holder. Drawing on a recently completed survey of 26 countries and seven more detailed country case studies, this paper reflects on the nature of CRE (what is it we want to achieve exactly?), the extent of implementation (what is, and is not, happening within the education systems of these countries to promote CRE?) and how progress can be secured (how have advocates made breakthroughs to promote CRE?). The answers to these questions provide enough glimpses of developed CRE that we can tease out a set of benchmarking statements, to help educators measure their progress against the best that is being achieved.
SPEAKERS: Lesley Emerson and Karen Orr, School of Education, QUB
DATE: Tuesday 31st March
TIME: 1230pm – 2.00pm
VENUE: Cathcart Room, School of Education, 69/71 University Street, Queen’s University Belfast
REGISTRATION: This is an open and free event, but for numbers please RSVP h.bryson@qub.ac.uk
This research, carried out on behalf of the Department of Justice, set out to explore the need for legal services for children and young people (CYP) in Northern Ireland (NI). Interviews were carried out with key stakeholders with direct experience of the legal needs of CYP, a wide range of focus groups with CYP and an online survey of post-primary school pupils to ascertain their knowledge and understanding of their legal rights and needs. The research indicates that the vulnerability of children and young people and their relative dependency on adults brings about specific legal needs, such as, inter alia: accurate assessment of competence; appropriate communication skills for adults engaging with children and young people; the recognition of children as rights-holders with the particular right to have their views sought, listened to and taken seriously; adequate time for cases so that meaningful consultation can occur at each stage of the legal process; need for legal specialism in relation to the issues faced by children and young people; age appropriate treatment by police; child friendly facilities and age appropriate court proceedings. In particular the seminar will focus on fundamental barriers to meeting the legal needs of children and young people: their lack of knowledge and understanding of their legal rights; their lack of confidence in relation to safely exercising their legal rights, for fear of repercussion; and their lack of willingness to exercise rights because they feel it would make little difference.