A 13-year-old girl has spoken at a UN event in Switzerland a year after she became the youngest person to moderate an event there.
Hannah Richardson took part in an event commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child at the Palais des Nations in Geneva on Monday.
The Children’s Parliament said the teenager, from East Lothian, was the only child from the UK to participate in the event on Monday, alongside young representatives from Switzerland, Mexico, Canada and the Philippines.
The teenager has been working with the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child as part of a global children’s advisory team.
Hannah, a member of the Children’s Parliament, said she loved being part of the event.
She said: “I loved meeting the girls from the other countries – I was surprised it was all girls.
“I really enjoyed looking at the Committee’s exhibition – I loved the giant globe with all the different flags on countries that have pledged their renewed commitment to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
“I was very nervous for speaking at the event but I plucked up the courage and I now feel very happy and proud of myself.”
Last year Hannah become the youngest moderator, aged 12, in a United Nations discussion on children as defenders of human rights.
On Monday she gave input during one of the panel sessions discussing the relationship between children’s rights and the environment, drawing on her experiences in StreetsAhead Tranent, a local community planning project in her home town, and the social and environmental impacts it has had.
Cathy McCulloch, co-director of the Children’s Parliament, said: “We are so proud of Hannah. The youngest person in the room and the toughest spot at the end of a long formal day but she smashed it.
“Everyone made a beeline for her at the end to congratulate her. And she’s ready for more.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here