POLITICIANS and others in positions of power must involve children and young people much more in their decision making, according to two Scottish teenagers – who made history last week by being the youngest people ever to address the UN’s Committee Against Torture.
Katrina Lambert, and EJ Carroll, who are both 18, gave evidence on Scotland’s human rights record to the committee last week, supported by the Children’s and Young People’s Commissioner for Scotland in their roles as Human Rights Defenders.
They told the Sunday National that the experience – during which they told the committee of human rights experts that hearing from young people like them should be the norm, not the exception – had made them more convinced than ever that children should be involved and consulted on the decisions that shape their lives.
Last week, in a half-hour private session, the young women presented evidence about Scotland’s need to implement children’s rights into domestic law, a commitment which was made by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon during her speech at the SNP conference. Campaigners claim that must be fully and swiftly implemented.
READ MORE: Teenage Scots set to make history at UN human rights committee
They also raised concerns that the age of criminal responsibility, raised from eight to 12 last week, fell short of the internationally recommended age of 14, and highlighted worrying evidence of young children being restrained in school, despite laws that should protect them. The committee will publish it’s findings this Friday.
Lambert, who first got involved in campaigning on gender equality with Girl Guiding Scotland, after becoming increasingly aware of how gender stereotyping was holding some girls back, said she would like others to have the opportunities to speak out.
She added: “What was really exciting for me the first time I stepped into a room with fellow like-minded activists was to have that feeling of: ‘Oh wow, I can actually change something.’” Now she believes passionately that young people should be taught about their rights at school so that they can stand up for themselves and their peers and influence decisions that affect them.
“It is a failing if children and young people don’t know these rights or have the ability to speak about them and be vocal about them,” she said. “I think schools is a really important part of that. We [the Human Rights Defenders group] have called for the embedding of human rights education into education.
“We learn about Maths and English and how to order a sandwich in French. But if you don’t know that you have the right to peaceful protest, that you have the right to be protected, the right to privacy and other rights you have as a young person, then that is a huge gap in the education system. It’s probably more important that you know what your rights are, and the action you can take to defend them, rather than know how to find the angle of a triangle.”
She dismissed claims that young people were disengaged in politics and claimed that often they were just not given the opportunity to participate. “Young people have such a powerful voice and when they are given a platform that is shown,” she said. “Adults often underestimate the power they can have.”
Scotland, however, she conceded is helping lead change. Last March Scottish Government ministers held their first Cabinet meeting with children and young people.
“But there still needs to be more action from those in power to meaningfully engage with young people”, she added. “[We need to] bring them in from the beginning of processes so that they are involved throughout, not in a tokenistic way of wanting to get a photo with young people that you can share on social media, but in a proper way. What do they want to see change, how do they want it to change, how do they want to be involved in that process?
“I have been in rooms when I have said: ‘This is an issue, we should probably do something about it and this is how we can fix it’ and seen a look of relief on the faces of the people around me because it was something they wanted to say but they couldn’t quite say it because of who else they were speaking to, or because they hadn’t quite got the email signed off or checked the policy.
“Because young people aren’t sucked up into that world of being a professional adult or having to navigate all of these things we can say things as they are.”
READ MORE: Human Rights Defenders set out recommendations for Scottish Government
EJ Carroll, who got into campaigning after being asked to speak about her own experiences of how family members of prisoners were poorly treated at a conference run by Families Outside, agreed that young people should be given more opportunities to shape policies and laws affecting them.
The “empowering” experience of speaking in front of the UN committee had helped build her confidence that her voice can be heard, she said.
“I think it is important for young people to have their voices heard,” she added. “Decisions are being made that will impact our future, we should be allowed to share our opinion and be supported in doing so.”
Scotland’s Children and Young People Commissioner, Bruce Adamson (pictured below), said that by failing to consider the views of children and young people, authorities were creating “a hugedemocratic deficit”.
He said they had much to offer to decisions. “One of the privileges of working with children and young people is they see straight through things,” he added. “Children are so good at seeing the essence of an issue and challenging the adults there to say what they mean. The challenge is really powerful.
“It is difficult to fob children off if they have experienced something. If you have an adult saying: ‘We have policies in place to make sure children don’t go hungry’ and you have child saying: ‘Well, I’ve experienced that’ it is very difficult to deny it. They [children] are able to speak truth to power in a way that an adult can’t. Young people can make changes that I could never make on my own.”
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