In Children’s Human Rights Defenders, you need to be creative and come up with stuff you want to change.
Member of Children’s Parliament
At Children’s Parliament, we support a team of Children’s Human Rights Defenders who are experienced Members of Children’s Parliament, to participate in democratic processes at local, national and international level. Our team is currently made up of 16 Members of Children’s Parliament from Aberdeen, Clackmannanshire, Dundee, East Lothian, Fife, Perth & Kinross, and Dumfries & Galloway.
Using a children’s rights approach, the programme empowers children to become human rights defenders, influencing national policy, practice and legislation on key issues important to children across Scotland.
I’m excited to get the chance to talk about children’s rights.
Member of Children’s Parliament
As part of a two-year cycle, the programme engages with children from all over Scotland to identify issues that feel urgent for children to grow up healthy, happy and safe in Scotland. To read more about the issue selection process, click here.
In the 2024-2025 cycle, the key issues identified by the children are:
Vaping is often seen by children as a ‘healthy’, ‘cool’ alternative to smoking. Scottish Government need to reduce children’s access to vaping and increase their understanding of its impact.
Children are worried about climate change. They don’t learn enough about the environment or have enough opportunities to have a meaningful say on their future. Scottish Government needs to find solutions to these worries and put children at the heart of their climate action.
Bullying is a big reason for mental health problems. Scottish Government needs to prioritise preventing bullying and supporting children with poor mental health in schools.
The Children’s Human Rights Defender team use their role to research, work and drive change on these issues, through a number of different approaches:
Participating in the annual Cabinet meeting with children and young people, where the team share key calls to action with the First Minister and the Cabinet.
Find out more here.
Participating in the Executive Team Takeover, where Members of Children’s Parliament share their calls to action with the Permanent Secretary and Director-Generals from Scottish Government.
Find out more here.
Participating in the International Canadian Child Right’s Partnership (ICCRP), where two of our team members join their monthly Intergenerational Advisory Committee meetings, and the whole team is working on a Child and Youth Activism project.
Find out more here.
Participating in and supporting other Members of Children’s Parliament in consultations that represent issues important to them, and in some cases further drive change on their calls to action. Recently work has seen involvement in the Public Health Scotland Substance Harm Reduction consultation, further driving change on the children’s calls to action on Vaping.
Participating in the Scottish Parliament partnership, where we are working in collaboration with the Scottish Parliament to support their inclusion of children in Parliamentary decision-making. Recently, we collaborated to make a video about how Parliament could be a more child-friendly place.
Click here to watch the video.
Participating in the UN reporting cycle, where two Members of Children’s Parliament joined the Scottish Youth Parliament and visited Geneva twice to report on Scotland’s implementation of children’s rights.
Read their report here & listen to the children’s reflections here.
Our Children Human Rights Defenders team are always up to new and exciting adventures, so do keep your eyes peeled on our blog and social media channels for more updates.
