Seen And Not Heard?

18 November 2011

On Universal Children’s Day Save the Children says things must change

Save the Children’s Hear Our Voices Values Exchange is an online platform that gives young people a chance to have their say and share their perspectives on issues that affect them. Launched earlier this month the site is already showing some interesting insights. Three of the key issues users have highlighted they’d like tackled by the Government post-election are: giving children a voice in national and local government, consulting with young people on issues related to education and stopping domestic violence.

Save the Children’s CEO Liz Gibbs comments:

“Launching the Hear Our Voices Values Exchange is another step on our journey of helping to encourage New Zealand to take children’s rights seriously. Universal Children’s Day is a good opportunity for all New Zealanders to reflect on how we can do better for our young people. Children have the right to survival, protection, participation and development and we need to be vigilant as a country to ensure that we are providing our future generations with the chance to fulfil their potential.

“Save the Children’s founder Eglantyne Jebb was instrumental in developing the Convention on the Rights of the Child and I’m proud that we have established a way for young people to share their thoughts and perspectives on some of the key issues that affect them. It’s early days and the numbers of users of Hear Our Voices Values Exchange are growing gradually but we believe that this is a platform that will become of increasing interest to children and young people. And it will be a vital way for Government, policy makers, businesses and other organisations to benefit from the wisdom of our young people and include them in finding solutions to key issues.”

Save the Children wants New Zealand’s children and young people to use Hear Our Voices Values Exchange to think through their responses to some of the issues for children that will be considered in the Green Paper for Vulnerable Children, and will present their views and opinions to government along with their own response.

Children and young people can sign up through their school or access the platform at http://savethechildren.values-exchange.co.nz/ or via Save the Children’s Facebook page.

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NOTES TO EDITORS
• Please contact Sophi Nauman on 027 241 2597 for further information or for interview bids with Liz Gibbs, David Seedhouse or young people who have piloted the Hear Our Voices Values Exchange.

• About Universal Children’s Day 20 November

o Universal Children Day is celebrated on 20 November every year with the purpose of promoting International togetherness and awareness among children the day is an occasion to promote the welfare of children
o Universal Children day was established in year 1954. 20th November is the day that the ‘Declaration of the Rights of the Child’ was adopted by UN General Assembly in 1959 and later in 1989, Convention of the Rights of the Child was adopted by UN General Assembly. In the last decade the Convention has been an important tool for promoting the rights of children all over the world.

About Hear Our Voices Values Exchange
• Children and young people between the ages of 7 – 17 years old can sign up to the Hear Our Voices Values Exchange at http://savethechildren.values-exchange.co.nz/

• The Hear Our Voices Values Exchange is the next step in Save the Children’s Hear Our Voices We Entreat project and 22 representatives from our newly established Child & Youth Council (CYC) will be helping promote the new online tool and advocate for child rights in New Zealand.

• The Values Exchange was created by Professor David Seedhouse and is also used by universities, health services, engineers and schools in New Zealand, Australia and the UK.

• In 2010, Save the Children commissioned and published research called Hear Our Voices We Entreat, in which 199 children and young people highlighted issues that concern them. Save the Children launched the report at Parliament and took it to the UN as part of our obligation to report on the progress of the United Nations Council on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), to which the New Zealand government is a signatory.

ENDS

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