Children and Young People

Scroll down to find out more about the information we have for children and young people

NICCY Youth Panel Children Pointing

Who is NICCY?

NICCY stands for the Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People. Your Children’s Commissioner is Chris Quinn .

Chris Quinn, NI Children's Commissioner, holding NICCY flags

It is Chris’ role to safeguard and promote the rights and best interests of children and young people. ‘Children and Young People’ refers to anyone up to the age of 18, or up to 21 if they have a disability, or have been or are in care. The UNCRC guides our work, which focuses on making sure children and young people know about, and have access to, these rights in their day-to-day lives, so they have the best opportunity to reach their full potential.

UNCRC

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) contains 42 rights or promises that cover all aspects of a young person’s life and explains how adults and governments must work together to make sure all children can enjoy all their rights.

Every child has rights, whatever their background, ethnicity, gender, religion, language, abilities or any other status. All the rights are linked, and no right is more important that another. Missing out on one will impact on lots of other rights.

The Commissioner’s Corporate Plan

The Corporate Plan is a document outlining what Chris is planning to do over the next 4 years. You can about his plans here. There may be other things that you think are important and Chris wants to hear from you to find out what these may be.

Tell Chris what he needs to work on to improve things for children and young people in Northern Ireland

Take this short survey to tell Chris what’s important to you, what you think needs to change to make children and young peoples’ lives better.

You can also draw your own picture of what’s important to you and send it to the NI Commissioner for Children and Young People using the DearCommish@niccy.org email address.

You can get in contact with us through the DearCommish email or 02890 311 616.

We will then use all the information sent to us to plan our work, to make sure that children’s rights are protected in Northern Ireland.

Click on the links below to find out more about NICCY: