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 AudioPeter Hain tells News Online about the Children's Committee  real 28k |
Children push for global rights
Peter Hain: Prepared for tough questioning |
Ministers and business leaders faced cross-examination on the subject of international children's rights - with children asking the questions.
The Children's Select Committee met for a special session at the Foreign Office on Wednesday to take evidence from witnesses and to consider whether children's rights across the world are being upheld.
Among those facing a grilling from the 16 children who form the committee's membership were Foreign Office Minister Peter Hain.
Also in line for some stiff questioning were representatives from campaigning organisations, global businesses, including companies that use overseas labour in the manufacture of fashionable sportswear.
Broadcaster Anna Ford chaired the special session.
When asked if he was expecting a hard time from the committee, Mr Hain said: "I'm very happy to accept tough questions, because that's the job of ministers - to be questioned in a tough way."
The committee held its special session at the Foreign Office in Westminster |
A select committee report will be published before the end of the year.
"I wanted to provide a platform for children's rights to be shouted right across the world," Mr Hain told BBC News Online.
"For young people themselves to be questioning me, to be making sure that whether it's exploitation of children, prostitution, protection against abuse, their right to live free from harassment or exploitation - all of these issues, that they are actually articulated by young people themselves pressing a minister like myself, and therefore governments, so that we can follow them up."
One of those committee members preparing to quiz Mr Hain told BBC News Online that as far as child soldiers were concerned the UK was setting a bad example as it still recruited those under 18.
After delving into the issue Laura Maclennan, aged 15, said she had learned how "horrendous" the situation is with some children in African states, such as Uganda, being kidnapped by armed groups and forced to fight.
The children, she said, could be as young as seven and may even be forced to kill their friends. Up to 300,000 children are estimated to be involved in armed conflicts across the globe.
The select committee was set up as a joint initiative by Save the Children and the Foreign Office to mark the 10th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and to raise the profile of children's international rights.
Mike Aaronson, director general of Save the Children, said: "At the centre of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child lies the right of children and young people to have a voice and be listened to."
He said he hoped the select committee would "demonstrate that young people have a valuable contribution to make to debates on issues that affect their and other children's lives."
The committee's members are all aged between 12 and 19 years old and are from across England and Wales.
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