Belfast sixth former Claire Bradley spent last week representing the UK's young people as an official government delegate to the United Nations Special Session on Children in New York where she told Children's Express reporters how she hopes it will change the world.
Claire Bradley should be studying for her A levels right now at home in Glenavy, instead the 18-year-old is in New York sitting alongside government ministers and heads of state in the United Nations General Assembly.
It's a plan that makes perfect sense to her: "If there was a world summit on health they would call in the health experts so when you're doing a world summit on children you should call in the experts there - the young people."
Claire first got involved in children's rights through her membership of Youth@CLC (the Children's Law Centre in Belfast). When they were asked to review progress on children's issues since the 1990 Children's Summit she volunteered. Before she knew it she was attending international conferences in Budapest and Berlin, and then found herself being elected by a panel of young people to attend the Special Session.
As one of the UK's two official government youth delegates to the United Nations Children's Forum, and the Special Session on Children, Claire is one of 362 young people selected from all over the world to represent the views of their generation, and contribute to world policy. Beginning last Sunday she gave up three long days to the Children's Forum, working with other young people on children's issues.
Still, they did all reach agreement on a statement on behalf of the world's children.
"We want a world fit for children," they told the General Assembly on Wednesday, "because a world fit for us is a world fit for everyone."
Since the Special Session itself began, she's been shadowing government ministers Hilary Benn and John Denham, and attending discussions on the UN's plan of action for the next ten years.
Claire spent eighteen months preparing for this week, meeting young people all over the UK and reporting directly to the UK government's negotiations. She clearly thinks it was worth the effort. "The feedback from young people has been excellent," she said. "The enthusiasm and confidence of the other delegates rubs off on everybody and everyone's very supportive of one another. And because Northern Ireland is not such a diverse place it's brilliant to see young people I'd never have met before."
Government talks on sensitive issues such as sex education and a common standard for children's rights were strained. And Claire knows the work doesn't end here.
She flew home on Friday, but once A levels are out of the way she will be straight back to work. "It's important now that young people who were there should follow it up in their own countries," she said.
"They should be putting pressure on their governments to be implementing the policies that they made at the UN when the cameras were there. It's not just a photo opportunity for them with young people. They really have to live up to their promises."
About the teamClaire was interviewed by Michael Leathem and Jasmine Stewart, 15, Amy Magowan-Green, 13, and Gavin Mather, 12. A version of this story was published in the Irish News.
