Queen’s University, Belfast produced the report – entitled Children’s Rights in Northern Ireland 2004 – on behalf of the Commissioner.
“The publication of this report represents a major milestone in children and young people’s rights in Northern Ireland,” said Mr Williams. “For the first time there is a serious academic examination of how Northern Ireland measures up against international standards, such as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
“It is also extremely important to me that much of this report had the direct input of children and young people – more than 1,200 school children took part in the research, including many from groups that have been hard to reach.”
Queens’ research has been made available for download from www.niccy.org, and Mr Williams said it was important that everyone could have access to the report.
“There are several hundred pages to this landmark report,” he said. “Ideally I would like to have made as many available as possible, but as costs would be prohibitive the best way to make sure people could access its findings is through the web site.
“I am also discussing with Queen’s research team the best way of producing a children’s version of this report.”