“I would like to extend my warmest congratulations to the partnership between Derry City and Strabane District Council, the Western Health and Social Care Trust, the Educational Authority, and the Youth Justice Agency on the magnificent achievement of being the first council area regionally to be officially recognised as a UNICEF Child Friendly City and Community (CFC).
Derry and Strabane district is the first region on the island of Ireland – and only the second region in the UK, after Cardiff – to be awarded CFC status, and it is brilliant to see the rights, voices, and wellbeing of children and young people placed at the heart of local decision-making, services, and community.
I was honoured to be invited to speak at today’s milestone event, celebrating alongside some of the children, young people, partners, and community representatives who have made the award of this accolade possible. The region’s ongoing commitment to upholding children’s rights and ensuring that children and young people are supported to thrive and to shape the communities in which they live is inspiring.
Whilst already achieving so much, the CFC programme has to potential to ensure adults and decision makers relate to children and young people, hear their voices and deliver services that are based on the actual needs of children and young people rather than the presumed needs of adults. For the most vulnerable and seldom heard, this could be a life-changing opportunity.
It is heartening to hear that children and young people are saying their lives have improved, including in areas of having a say in decisions, access to child-friendly information, and feeling valued in public spaces. It is also welcome that there is now a significant expansion of child-rights awareness for staff with child rights training now required in key roles across the district, helping develop a systemic culture of child rights.
International recognition like this is a huge deal in the wider context of children’s rights in Northern Ireland, and I believe it should be a model for our regions and the country as a whole.
I urge other local councils, and indeed the Stormont Executive, to follow the Derry and Strabane partnership’s lead in putting children’s rights and their voices to the forefront of their policy making and in how they spend public money. This is a very symbolic cultural shift – and, I believe, a major step in incorporating the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) fully into law.
My office and I are embarking on a campaign to get the UNCRC incorporated into domestic legislation. This would provide legal weight to children’s rights, making services and policies consistently consider children’s best interests, and establish clear legal duties on government and public bodies, promoting a positive children’s rights culture.
The CFC programme embodies these values within a regional setting – and I passionately believe that Incorporation is the single most important thing we can do for children and young people across NI.”
