Young people - rights and responsibilities

What responsibilities should we have as citizens of the UK? Are there additional rights to those already protected in UK law that should be included in a Bill of Rights and Responsibilities?

Young people have an important contribution to make to this debate and a group of young people aged from 12 to 19 convened a mock committee hearing at Portcullis House to consider these questions and debate the issue of rights and responsibilities with Justice Minister Michael Wills.

The committee hearing, chaired by Dr Roger Morgan, the Children's Rights Director for England, marks the launch of a young person's version of the Green Paper Rights and Responsibilities: developing our constitutional framework. The Green Paper seeks specifically the views of young people on whether we should have a Bill of Rights and Responsibilities to set out in one place all the rights we have and the responsibilities we owe to each other.

The Green Paper lists some of the responsibilities we have, and asks if some should be explicitly stated in a single document, including:
- obeying the law and reporting crimes
- treating NHS and other public sector staff with respect
- safeguarding and promoting the wellbeing of children in our care
- living within our environmental limits.

An essay competition for young people aged from 11 to 18, on rights and responsibilities, has been opened alongside the Green Paper.

Launching the Green Paper Justice Minister Michael Wills said: 'We want young people to contribute to this very important debate. A new Bill of Rights and Responsibilities could clarify and change the relationship between citizen and State and make clear what each can expect from the other.

'Our existing rights and responsibilities are located in a large number of different documents. A Bill of Rights and Responsibilities could identify them and bring them together in one place so that they are easily accessible. It could make clear the importance of exercising rights responsibly, and the ways in which responsibilities have always been implicit in the expression of our rights. It could also add new constitutional rights to those which already exist.' Dawn Butler, Minister for Youth Engagement welcomed the Green Paper and said: 'Young people must be able to influence the decisions that affect them and have a real say in making the Government work for them. This young people's guide to the Green Paper on Rights and Responsibilities acts as a positive example of how the Government can communicate with young people, and is another step towards improved engagement.'

This Green Paper will provide young people with the opportunity to consider the arguments for and against a Bill of Rights and Responsibilities. The discussions could lead to a significant constitutional development with these rights and responsibilities drawn together in one place for the first time and new constitutional rights added to those which already exist.

Rights and Responsibilities - Young People