The CCR research team involved in conducting research on the impacts of conflict legacy on children, families and communities – It didn’t end in 1998 – were invited to present evidence to a number of Committees. Mary-Louise Corr and Siobhán McAlister provided an oral briefing outlining key research findings to The Committee of the Executive Office in December 2022. In May 2022, Siobhán McAlister was part of the first panel to give evidence to the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee’s investigation into the effect of paramilitaries in Northern Ireland. She spoke specifically of the impacts on children and young people, the safeguarding and child rights implications and the lack of discussion or analysis of the impacts on girls and young women. Speaking of the value of a child rights lens she noted:

‘When we ground this as a children’s rights issue, we see the wide range of impacts that this type of violence can have on children and young people and on families. By employing the definition of violence used in the UNCRC, we also move away from this hierarchy of violence, where we almost privilege and prioritise particularly types of physical violence in our media campaigns and our service responses’.

A recording of the session

Transcript