Young People tell the Commission on a UK Bill of Rights what we think about human rights 1
A quick summary of the day This was a day all about young people from across Britain meeting up and having their say on human rights. Invited by the British Institute of Human Rights and the Rights of the Children Coalition UK (ROCK) we were able to tell Professor Philippe Sands QC, a member of the Commission on a UK Bill of Rights, exactly what we think the Commission should be telling the Government about human rights laws In the UK. Our main message to the Commission is that the Government should keep the Human Rights Act. We are worried that lots of adults, including politicians, don t seem to understand why human rights and the Human Rights Act are important. We don t think this is the time to be messing with the Human Rights Act because we re worried it we will end up with less protections. We reckon that if the Commission and the Government are serious about improving our human rights then they don t need to get rid of the Human Rights Act, they can simply build on and we have some suggestions for how. But we have our doubts about whether this will happen. You can find more details about what we told Philippe from the Commission on page 5. Why was it important? Children s rights are human rights. The Human Rights Act is one of the main ways our human rights are protected in UK law. It makes the rights in the European Convention on Human Rights part of UK law and means officials have a duty to respect our rights. In 2011 the Government created a Commission made up of eight lawyers (seven men and one woman) to investigate a UK Bill of Rights. The Commission is asking important questions about whether the Human Rights Act is a good or bad law and if it should be replaced with a new Bill of Rights or some other law or not all. It will report its findings back to the Government at the end of 2012. Two independent groups the British Institute of Human Rights (BIHR) and the Rights of the Child Coalition UK (ROCK) thought it was important to have a day for young people to get together and tell the Commission (and the Government) what they think about human rights in the UK. 2
Who was there? Young people from across Britain travelled to London to take part. We came from Wales, Scotland and England and were aged between 13 to 23 years old. We come from lots of different backgrounds and have diverse life experiences, some of us live in care, are carers, are Travellers, are refugees, some of us are involved in charities and groups to help raise awareness about children s rights in the UK and other places. Professor Philippe Sands QC, a member of the Commission on a UK Bill of Rights came along to hear what we had to say. People from BIHR and the groups that are part of ROCK also attended to help run the day, as well as our support workers and guardians. What happened? The morning kicked off with some fun sessions on human rights that got us talking (and moving!) about human rights, what they are, how are they protected, and the current law in the UK. We talked about the importance of having legally enforceable human rights and shared our experiences of how some people in the UK still don t have access to the basics like running water, especially among Gypsy and Traveller communities, and how young people s rights can be disrespected by officials with power, including the police and social services. Philippe from the Commission joined us for lunch before we got down to the business of the day and told him our opinions on human rights and the Commission. We started the afternoon with introductions and welcomes from Stephen at BIHR, Dragan from UNICEF UK/ROCK and Philippe. Stephen from BIHR said he was delighted so many of us had given up a Saturday to come and have our say. He said people often say young people are our future, but they are also our 3
present and it is important that they participate in these debates and their voices are heard. Dragan, from UNICEF UK/ROCK thanked BIHR for hosting the event and all the participants for coming along. ROCK is a group of lots of organisations and people that want to see the international human rights Convention on the Rights of Child made part of our law in the UK. He said consultations are best face-to-face and that this event was a great opportunity. He encouraged everyone to say what they thought it was a day for young people and one to make their own. Philippe introduced himself as one of the eight members of the Commission, a Londoner, teacher, a lawyer and a father whose chats around the dinner table often involve human rights and especially children s rights! He told us a bit about the Commission and how they have made visits to different parts of the UK. They have already completed one consultation, and the second one was about to start. He encouraged us all to respond to the consultation and tell the Commission our thoughts, he said all responses will be considered equally. We then split up in to three smaller groups so we could share our thoughts about human rights. Philippe visited each of the groups listening to our discussions, getting involved and our answering questions. Then we formed one big group to report what we wanted to tell the Commission. Our key messages for the Commission We want the Commission to know that the Human Rights Act is important for protecting human rights in the UK because: The Human Rights Act protects rights that are essential to live and helps make us feel safe. The Human Rights Act is important because it gives guidelines for freedom of speech, prevents harm, and enables people to have a voice, it is really important in protecting our rights and there should be no replacement. 4
The Human Rights Act is important because it protects everyone s rights - everyone should be treated equally, there should be no denial of rights. It is important that we can take our complaints to UK courts and to the European Court of Human Rights if we need to, it helps make sure things are fairly decided. Some people are confused about what the Human Rights Act is and isn t, but that is about misunderstandings which can be sorted out with the right information not about the law being rubbish. It is really important that people know about the Human Rights Act and that we're taught about it from a young age to make sure that we all know what we are taking about and to make sure we all respect each other. We want the Commission to know that we think the following about exchanging the Human Rights Act for a Bill of Rights: We don t see any need to get rid of the Human Rights Act, it is working and we re pretty happy with it. We think the question should be should be how do we make the Human Rights Act even better which doesn't mean scrapping it. We re worried that the ideas at the moment about swapping the Human Rights Act for a new Bill of Rights would damage human rights protection. We don t feel like we have any reason to trust that a Bill of Rights would be about improving the Human Rights Act. We re not confident that the Government or politicians will come up with a better alternative to the Human Rights Act and that new Bill of Rights would us in a worse position. We think it s better to keep the Human Rights Act. There isn t an alternative Bill of Rights for us to look at to decide what we think about a Bill of Rights. It s not very sensible to ask people what they think about something when they don t know what it would be could be something no-one wants 5
There was an interesting discussion at this point about how much young people trust various different officials to protect their rights. No one trusted politicians, around half said they trusted judges and around half said they didn't trust either. We want the Commission to know that when thinking about whether a new Bill of Rights could have some additional rights we think: The Commission should be asking about adding more rights to Human Rights Act because it should be the starting point. This also means all of the rights in the Human Rights Act should stay. Including social and economic rights could be important because of economic inequality at the moment. To think about the rights of particular groups of people including children, travellers and disabled people. The Children s Rights Convention is a good place to start looking for additional rights for children. There should be ways to make our human rights entrenched so that MPs can't just get rid of them. What the Commissioner told Young People During this session Philippe faced some tough questions, but he was interested in what we said and told us what you have to say matters! He said he is aware many people are worried about the Commission's investigation and this means the Commission has a responsibility to listen to people. He promised that he would go back to the Commission and tell the other members what we had shared with him. He encouraged us to respond to the Commission's second consultation paper to make sure our voices are heard. 6
What next? After the event, Stephen Bowen the Director of the BIHR said: It was an energetic day which showed how much young people have to say about the big political issues of the day. The strength of passion, wisdom and clarity that the young people showed, was a lesson to us all. Their key message to the Commission and ultimately to the Government, was clear and to the point: keep our Human Rights Act! The week after our event the Commission published its second public consultation paper asking lots of questions about the Human Rights Act, the European Convention on Human Rights and a possible Bill of Rights. The Commission's consultation closes on the 30 September 2012. BIHR has produced an Unofficial Guide to the consultation to help people understand what the Commission is asking so they can respond. You can find a copy of the Guide here: www.bihr.org.uk/news/its-time-to-act BIHR has also started #Act - a new campaign to help people tell the Commission what they think. You can find out more about this campaign by visiting www.bihr-act.org.uk If you click on the hand logo you can send a postcard to the Commission telling them why it is important to keep the Human Rights Act. 7