Delivering on children’s rights
Delivering on children’s rights
Delivering on children’s rights
With nearly one in four children and young people in NI living in poverty the Youth Panel wanted to explore some of the reasons behind this and how children and families can be better protected by the safety net of social security. They explored how living in poverty can impact education, health and social opportunities.
What does the UNCRC Say?
Children have the right to food, clothing and a safe place to live so they can develop in the best possible way. The 
government should help families and children who cannot afford this.
Governments should provide money or other support to help children from poor families.
Parents are the main people responsible for bringing up a child. When the child does not have any parents, another adult will have this responsibility and they are called a “guardian”. Parents and guardians should always consider what is best for that child. Governments should help them. Where a child has both parents, both of them should be responsible for bringing up the child.
What other rights might be impacted?
What else does the UNCRC Committee say about children’s rights to an adequate standard of living?
There is no particular general comment on poverty but the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child regularly outlines how poverty should be dealt with as a human rights issue.
How do children and young people feel their right to an adequate standard of living is being met?
“The Joseph Rowntree Foundation provided a practical account of the realities of child poverty in NI in 2022. 24% of children in NI live in poverty. That NI has the lowest levels in the UK is nothing to be proud of when you contrast this with significantly lower levels in Scandinavian countries. Denmark has a level of 9%. 3 years on with continued rising food and energy costs, major pressure on social and rental housing, the picture can only be painted with greyer tones.”
“There is a high dependence on social security in NI. Food insecurity is high, where even if food can be afforded, nutritious healthful foods may not be. Coping with the cost of life seems to be a bit like being in open water, some are on luxurious yachts, some are on boats, others are surfing, others may have all the means to swim but many need armbands to keep afloat but as the Executive arguably stops mending punctured life rafts, some of these people are descending into depths that they need properly rescued from. There are numerous sharks in that water like covid, health issues, disability, redundancies, family breakdown, and higher living costs. They can affect everyone.”
“There is also the social stigma of poverty impacting young people in a world where we are being told by TikTok and Instagram what clothes we should wear, and the holidays we should be taking there are some of us who may not have enough money for housing, food, electricity and heat.”
“The UNCRC has a crucial role in safeguarding children from poverty in so many ways. The rights codified within it are universally undermined when a child lives in poverty and over 30 years on from the foundation of the UNCRC, it is clear that child poverty in our own developed nation has not been eradicated but remains, reducing standards of living as well as reducing the likelihood of positive health, education, later employment outcomes and at worst, endangering development and survival. Article 27 guarantees the right to a standard of living that allows for physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development. This Article reads more like a pipe dream for 24% of children in NI in 2025 and not a guarantee.”
“The NI Audit Office complied a report on Child Poverty in March 2024. Its contents make for a difficult read. There has been no sustained improvement in child poverty levels since 2016, despite the publication of the NI Executive’s Child Poverty Strategy at that time. This strategy clearly outlined the deep rooted scale and impact of the problem of child poverty but the action taken to tackle it seems ad hoc and disjointed, with no clear poverty reduction targets set and no specific pathways or interventions to address or prevent poverty. Social security perhaps may be more accurately renamed as social insecurity. Rising prices of food and energy, along with unprecedented pressure on housing in Belfast and beyond coexist in a mutually incompatible context of pressure on welfare, funding for schools and health care.”
What do we want to happen?
- Government needs to treat poverty as a children’s rights issue. The UNCRC should be incorporated into domestic law here in NI to safeguard children’s right to a decent standard of living.
- Ring-fenced budgets should be available to address social inclusion strategies. We need sustained and positive actions.
- The NI Executive should consider this as a long-term plan but also as part of a bigger picture for better local economy when children have grown into adults benefitting from improved health, educational and job outcomes.
You can find out more about NICCY’s work on child poverty here