Commissioner’s For Every Child…Every Right exhibition tour continues

The Children’s Commissioner, Chris Quinn, commences a new year of ‘For Every Child…Every Right’ exhibition events across Northern Ireland in partnership with Libraries NI.  

14 January 2025

The Children’s Commissioner, Chris Quinn, commences a new year of ‘For Every Child…Every Right’ exhibition events across Northern Ireland in partnership with Libraries NI.  

Larne Library kickstarts this year’s series of events focusing on children’s rights, with more Libraries NI locations to be confirmed.   

Chris and the NICCY Participation team delivered an interactive and engaging workshop for local primary school participants from Larne, Ballynure, Glenarm and Whitehead at the exhibition launch.  

‘For Every Child…Every Right’ events are important platforms that allow young people to learn more about their rights and explore the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). The UNCRC is a very special and powerful international agreement that sets out the civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights of children. The UK, including Northern Ireland, ratified the UNCRC in 1991. 

This year’s events will include engaging children and young people in conversations about incorporating the UNCRC into domestic law.The Commissioner is keen to ensure that children of all ages and backgrounds can share their views on this issue.  

The exhibition also explains how adults and the government must work together to ensure all children can enjoy their rights. 

Since October 2023, Chris has engaged directly with over 570 pupils from 116 schools who have taken part in the events and countless children will have visited the exhibitions in 11 libraries across Northern Ireland, including Derry Central Library, Omagh, Newry, Enniskillen and Limavady. 

Children’s views will continue to be gathered and written into a special youth report, which will be published and help inform NICCY in providing advice to government. To enable those making policies and laws to be informed by children’s lived experiences and perspectives. 

Speaking at the event, Commissioner Chris Quinn expressed his unwavering dedication to the role, saying: “I am delighted to be in Larne Library today to mark the start of this year’s tour. I look forward to visiting more locations this year and hearing about the issues that affect children and young people in each town and school. I am delighted that the partnership with Libraries NI continues to flourish.  

“The best part of my role is meeting children and young people directly to understand issues that are important to them.  

“I work with many organisations and government figures to ensure that children and young people’s voices are heard. I’m really concerned about ongoing violations of children’s rights, including child sexual exploitation, barriers to education, special educational needs to poverty and racism.”      

Chris has set out one of his key priorities, ensuring the rights of the child are fulfilled and protected, commenting: “Incorporating the UNCRC into NI law is a key objective for me to prevent breaches of children’s rights. The team at NICCY works hard to promote the knowledge of rights, and we utilise our powers to challenge child rights violations.” 

Kim Keys, Libraries NI Deputy Head of Service, said: “We greatly value the opportunity to collaborate with the Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People for a second year of exhibition tours, supporting their mission to protect and promote the rights of children. 

“We have been grateful to host the exhibition, and it is encouraging to hear how it has reached and positively impacted so many young people as it travels to libraries across Northern Ireland. We hope this year’s tour will continue to inspire and engage even more young people in the same way.”