Derry Young People wronged over Rights
April 21, 2004.

This week Children’s Express Foyle Bureau reporters discovered that the young people of Derry have been kept in the dark over their rights. As young people we were shocked when we recently found out the UN Convention of the rights of the child existed. It turns out since last June we have a lot more rights than we thought, but many of us didn’t know we had any.

As young journalists one right is more important to us than others- the right to have our voice heard, however in total young people have almost 50 rights. We believe many of them tend to be forgotten or overlooked by adults, in fact you have probably more chance of George Bush listening to the UN.

All of us are annoyed at the fact that we were never told about our rights before and we believe they are broken on a regular basis. We all decided we wanted to do more to inform young people like us of what our rights are, but first we decided to find out how aware the other young people of Derry actually were about their rights. What we found was disappointing.
After completing a number of interviews across the city we were shocked to find out that three out of ten children didn’t know anything about what rights they had or had never even heard of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Why is this so?

We need ways to enforce these rights and make sure that every child knows them because we believe children will feel better about themselves and treat one another better.
Instead of perhaps boring you with the full list we, as a group, decided to compile a list of our ten top favourite rights, if you like, because after all children have a right to know them! If you want to find out more check out the website www.unicef.org.

As a child or young person you have the right to:

1. You have the right to live (pretty straight forward but important!)
2. You have the right to choose your own religion.
3. You have the right to an education.
4. You have the right to be with your parents if it is best for you.
5. You have the right to be protected from abuse and neglect.
6. You have the right to express the views you have and your views to be listened to in anything that affects you (teachers take notice)
7. You have the right to a decent standard of living.
8. You have the right to choose your friends and hangout with them.
9. You have the right to be protected from all forms of cruelty, exploitation and torture.
10. The government must uphold your rights.

About the team
This story was produced by Nicole Lynch, 13, Owen Shields, 17, Terri McLaughlin, 13, Ryan McLaughlin, 15, Connor Donnelly, 12, Aisling Doyle, 12, and Emmet Barr, 14. It was published by Foyle News. April 21, 2004.