Right Here, Right Now The Scottish Youth Parliament’s 2017-18 national campaign on young people’s rights Introduce yourself – name and role. Explain that you are going to talk about the Scottish Youth Parliament (SYP), and our current national campaign. #SYPrights

The Scottish Youth Parliament The Scottish Youth Parliament is the democratically elected voice of Scotland's young people.   SYP was established on 30 June 1999, making us one day older than the Scottish Parliament. Elections are held every two years, in which young people from all across Scotland stand as candidates to become Members of the Scottish Youth Parliament (MSYPs). MSYPs range in age from 14 to 25, and represent constituencies in all 32 local authorities throughout the country, and currently 11 national voluntary organisations. There are 166 MSYPs in total. We are a fundamentally rights-based organisation, and our mission, vision, and values are grounded in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).  In particular, our purpose embodies Article 12: that young people have the right to express their views freely and have their opinions listened to in all matters affecting them. As a completely youth-led organisation, the words and sentiment of Article 12 have profound importance for our work. MSYPs have a unique mandate as the democratically elected representatives of Scotland’s young people, as we are elected by our constituents, to listen to and recognise the issues that are most important to young people, ensuring that their voices are heard by decision-makers.  SYP exists to provide a national platform for young people to discuss the issues that are important to them, and campaign to effect the change they wish to see. This presentation is an introduction to the Scottish Youth Parliament’s 2017-18 national campaign on young people’s rights, Right Here, Right Now. www.syp.org.uk #SYPrights

Campaign background MSYPs consulted with over 5,000 young people. Campaign planning. Campaign name and logo. Partnerships. SYP runs one national campaign every year. Campaigns are selected by MSYPs, and this year young people’s rights was selected at the Sitting in June after MSYPs consulted with over 5,000 young people. At the June Sitting, MSYPs and Support Workers took part in a consultation activity to suggest ideas for the campaign, as well as identify some of the challenges and opportunities. These suggestions were considered by the SYP Conveners Group, who have worked with the staff team and other MSYPs to develop the campaign plans. The campaign launched on Friday 27th October 2017, and will end in October 2018. The campaign name, Right Here, Right Now, was selected by the Conveners Group from a list names collected from MSYPs, Conveners, the Board, and SYP staff. The logo is based on a design idea from Emily Harle MSYP, Angus South, who is a member of the SYP Creative Communications team. Throughout the campaign, SYP will be working with other rights-based organisations, including Together, the Children’s Commissioner, the Children’s Parliament, Scottish Human Rights Commission, the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, and Unicef, to make sure that we are bringing something different but which can add value to the campaign around young people’s rights in Scotland. #SYPrights

Key messages By the end of this campaign, SYP wants: Scotland’s young people to be aware of and understand their own rights, and be empowered to take action to defend their own rights and those of others. Scotland’s decision-makers to take a human rights- based approach to all policy-making, service provision, and planning, ensuring young people’s voices are at the heart of decisions affecting them. As SYP represents young people up to the age of 25, Right Here, Right Now will not just focus on UNCRC, which relates to children and young people up to the age of 18. Instead, it will take a broader view of rights, to make sure all young people are recognised in the campaign activities, know their rights under the Human Rights Act and other rights mechanisms, and are empowered to take action. The key campaign messages of Right Here, Right Now will have both a local and a national focus, concentrating on strengthening the protection of young people’s rights in Scotland; reinforcing the links between MSYPs and local decision-makers, and between SYP and national institutions; and empowering young people to defend their own rights and the rights of others. By the end of this campaign, SYP wants:  Scotland’s young people to be aware of and understand their own rights, and be empowered to take action to defend their own rights and those of others.  Scotland’s decision-makers to take a human rights-based approach to all policy-making, service provision, and planning, ensuring young people’s voices are at the heart of decisions affecting them. #SYPrights

Campaign Objectives To influence law, policy, and practice in order to strengthen the protection of young people’s rights. To improve links between SYP, public bodies, and national institutions, such as the Scottish Parliament, to respect, protect, and promote young people’s rights. To promote young people’s rights, and empower individuals to defend their own rights and those of others. To strengthen and enhance the status of MSYPs as the voice of Scotland’s young people at a local level, and to strengthen the role of voluntary organisation MSYPs nationally. The objectives of this campaign are closely related to the campaign themes, which I’ll talk about shortly, and the key messages. As such, the objectives of Right Here, Right Now are: To influence law, policy, and practice in order to strengthen the protection of young people’s rights. To improve links between SYP, public bodies, and national institutions, such as the Scottish Parliament, to respect, protect, and promote young people’s rights. To promote young people’s rights, and empower individuals to defend their own rights and those of others. To strengthen and enhance the status of MSYPs as the voice of Scotland’s young people at a local level, and to strengthen the role of voluntary organisation MSYPs nationally. Each objective has a set of key activities, which are tied closely to the campaign themes I’ll tell you about now. #SYPrights

Campaign themes #SYPrights Given the complex and wide-ranging scope of young people’s rights, there are many areas this campaign could focus on. Following conversations with the Conveners Group and partner organisations, it was agreed that this campaign will focus on three main themes:  Advocacy  Action  Awareness #SYPrights

Theme: Advocacy This is the overarching campaign theme, aiming to influence law, policy, and practice in order to strengthen the protection of young people’s rights. Advocacy: This is the overarching campaign theme, aiming to influence law, policy, and practice in order to strengthen the protection of young people’s rights. The main activities in this theme will focus on: Calling for the incorporation of UNCRC into Scots Law. Advocating for a rights-based approach to local and national decision-making, service provision, and planning – SYP will be working with Together Scotland to create resources for MSYPs to use locally to promote positive ways in which public bodies can do this, which will launch in early 2018. Calling on the Scottish Government to produce a Children and Young People's Rights National Action Plan, and ensuring young people's views are at the heart of the Scottish Government's 2018 report on the current state of children and young people’s rights. Defending the rights of young people during Brexit negotiations. Persuading MSPs and others to support legislative and policy mechanisms, such as the Equal Protection Bill and Period Poverty campaign, to prevent breaches of young people's rights in Scotland. This is a really busy theme, with MSYPs looking at rights in relation to all sorts of issues. Since October, we have consulted and responded to consultations on Brexit, Period Poverty, Equal Protection, the use of mosquito devices, and lots more! In January 2018, we launched our Brexit Manifesto, Rights Outright, which identified five rights-based priorities as being of the most importance to young people. These priorities relate to workplace rights, participation, equalities and rights protection, right to remain, and the right to health. In April 2018, MSYPs used their democratic mandate to defend young people’s rights on a national platform at the Young People’s Rights Review in Edinburgh. Funded by the Scottish Government, the event was a chance for SYP to make sure young people’s voices are at the heart of the Scottish Government’s Children and Young People Rights Action Plan, which is due to be published later this year. There is a hub on our website where you can find out more and watch a video report from the day. #SYPrights

Theme: Action Focussing on Article 12 of the UNCRC, this theme will seek to strengthen and enhance the status of MSYPs at a local level and within national voluntary organisations, and improve the links SYP has with other institutions, such as the Scottish Parliament. SYP and individual MSYPs embody Article 12 of the UNCRC - the right for young people to have their views heard. The Action theme will focus primarily on supporting and enhancing MSYPs’ grassroots activities, reiterating the importance of MSYPs in ensuring young people are involved in decisions affecting them at a local level. To support this, national activities will strengthen links between MSYPs and decision-makers, and between SYP and national institutions, such as the Scottish Parliament. The main activities in this theme focus on building links with local decision-makers by encouraging them to sign a pledge and commit to working more closely with the MSYPs in their areas. From 3rd – 10th December 2017, SYP led a national week of action – Rights Week – with MSYPs carrying out lots of activities locally to raise awareness of SYP and MSYPs amongst constituents, and to start building relationships with local decision-makers. #SYPrights

#SYPrights #RightsWeek Our first focussed week of activities, Rights Week, took in December 2017, ending on Human Rights Day on 10th December. During Rights Week, MSYPs, young people, and other brilliant rights defenders got involved by meeting with decision-makers, speaking to schools and youth groups, consulting young people for Rights Outright: SYP’s Brexit manifesto, signing up to our campaign thunderclap, collecting food and sanitary products for local food banks, attending events, making videos, writing blog posts, and, of course, taking to social media to shout about young people’s rights. This is just a taster of the activities MSYPs and other young people were involved in. You can find out more about what we got up to by checking out the campaign hashtag, #SYPrights, and #RightsWeek on Twitter. #SYPrights #RightsWeek

Theme: Awareness Promoting young people’s rights to young people and those responsible for upholding these rights, and empowering individuals to defend their own rights and the rights of others. Underpinning the other two campaign themes, the Awareness theme recognises that many young people aren’t aware of their rights, and/or don’t know how to realise those rights. There is a risk that ‘awareness-raising’ campaigns can become tokenistic, and don’t leave lasting impact. As such, it is essential that this campaign prioritises empowering young people to take action to realise, promote and defend their own rights and the rights of others. The main activity in this theme will be a series of workshops, which MSYPs can deliver in their local areas/ organisations. These workshops will be designed to:  Inform young people of their rights.  Improve knowledge of structures for reporting breaches of rights.  Develop skills to empower young people to defend their own and others’ rights.  Provide an opportunity for young people to take action in their local area to further young people’s rights. These workshops launched in January 2018, and can be delivered by MSYPs up and down Scotland. MSYPs are also shouting about young people’s rights by tweeting, sharing links and information, and talking about rights – you can follow the conversation and take part on social media using the campaign hashtag, #SYPrights. The most important thing to remember is that this theme isn’t just about raising awareness, it’s about empowering young people to take action in their local areas, so there will be lots of examples of ways in which they can do this! #SYPrights

Any questions? #SYPrights Thank you for listening. Does anyone have any questions? #SYPrights