Lunchtime Webinar - Incorporating the UNCRC—Making children’s rights real.

The UNCRC is the basic minimum standard for children's rights—so what difference does it make when it is fully incorporated into domestic law? Join us for a compelling webinar exploring the potential impact of embedding the UNCRC into Northern Irish legislation. With expert insights from Bruce Adamson, former Children's Commissioner of Scotland, and chaired by Paddy Kelly, Director of the Children's Law Centre, this event will break down what legal incorporation means in practice. How will it impact on legislation, policy, decision making, and most importantly the lives of children? What lessons can we learn from Scotland's journey? Half of this session is dedicated to open discussion, so bring your questions, your concerns, and your vision for a rights based future.

This will be of interest to those who work to secure human rights protections including in domestic legislation, those working to deliver a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland, and those advocating incorporation of international human rights instruments into domestic legislation; as well as children's rights advocates.

Bruce Adamson is Professor of Practice at the University of Glasgow's School of Law, having been the Children and Young People's Commissioner Scotland 2017–2023. He was part of the team when the Scotland's Commissioner for Children and Young People was set up in 2005. He was a legal officer at the Scottish Human Rights Commission and has worked as a member of Children's Panels. In 2013 he was seconded to a position in Geneva with the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions. representing institutions from over 100 countries working to improve human rights across the world.

Paddy Kelly is a Barrister; she holds an LLB and LLM in Human Rights Law from Queen’s University, Belfast. In 1997 she established the Children’s Law Centre after the first examination of the UK government by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. She has led the NGO sector in this jurisdiction in reporting to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child for each of the UK’s examinations to date, having also attended each examination. Paddy has ensured the attendance of young people from Northern Ireland at the 2002, 2008, 2016 and 2023 examinations.