The young people of UNIPOL recently got together for a training weekend in Essex. © UNICEF UK/2010/Alice Bottini-Hall
UNICEF UK has appointed six young people to form a new policy advisory group who will represent and champion children’s rights. The new group, UNIPOL, is made up of young people from across the country.
UNIPOL will be involved in UNICEF UK’s work on overseas aid, climate change, and UK child poverty, as well as the campaign to make the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) part of UK law.
The six young people are: Robert, 16, Linda, 16, Shereen, 14, Greg, 13, Micha, 12, and Eesa, who is 11-years-old. They will be meeting three times each year, as well as taking part in regular group telephone calls, to help ensure UNICEF UK represents the views and concerns of young people.
UNIPOL will help come up with recommendations from UNICEF research on children’s rights. They will also be spreading the word about children’s rights to other young people and decision makers, such as their local MPs, and will get the chance to write blogs and attend UNICEF events.
The six young people joined UNICEF after answering a call on the Tagd website, asking them to write a short article, draw a comic strip, take a photograph, record a podcast or make a short film, telling us why children’s rights matter to them and to the lives of children around the world.