 Fawr mwyha Get кар inviting back back to the Equalities and Human Rights Committee this morning. Our second panel for this morning is a very interesting and exciting panel that the committee has been working with over the last few weeks to highlight international human rights day, which is this Saturday, 10 December. The committee wanted to mark this occasion by speaking to some of the people who are at it in this process, the young people of Scotland. Ieol y gall. Mae rhai amser gennymddiaeth sy'n ddod eich gwasanaeth i gŵr o'r prifoedd Smym Wrian, i ffôr i sefyd yr erdwyngol. Mae'r maen nhw'n ddegon y wneud i'r ddeithasol i'r Mean i'r Prifoedd Smym Wrian i'r ddegon maen nhw'n ddegon i'r ddeithasol. Mae'r maen nhw'n ddegon i'r ddegon i'r ddegon i'r ddegon i'r ddegon i'r ddegon i'r sigul. but are focused to dare the kids we're really really pleased for you to come along and we were really pleased for some of the committee to come to your school and talk to you about what what mattered to you. And as you can see behind me we've brought along some of your ideas we did the red amber Green so some of the things that you thought we were doing well went on the green cards. Some of the things you thought we could do better went on the yellow cards and things that we really needed to make a difference, we went on the red cards and we've got those behind We were really pleased to have these with us today, but to hear your views. I have to say that I was very, very inspired by the work of this committee going forward, to hear what you have got to say. We are really keen to have you along at the committee this morning and delighted that you feel able to come and sit in committee and give us your views. We are very keen to hear from you and what you think the Scottish Parliament should be doing to ensure that we maintain your rights, and the things that really matter You are the things that you like, but the things that you think we should fix as well. So, we are really keen to hear from you. If you want to come in, just do the same as in class, stick your hand up and let me know and tell me your name, and you can come in and give me your thoughts and your feelings. So, who's first? We have a friendly number. And your name, young man? My name is Kai. Nice to meet you, Kai. The rights of children and everyone in the world are very important because If everyone was doing what they would like, it wouldn't end very well because we need to work on the wars because there's a lot, because in Syria their houses are getting blown up while they're inside them. So I think that's really important and the fuel because we need to drive cars that don't use fuel because it's polluting the world a lot. Two very, very good points, Kai. One about peace for children around the world and the other one about the environment that we live in and how important that is, yeah? Anybody else? Yes? My name's Hannah and I think we could maybe help with gender equality, especially across schools because in a lot of places as a girl I like to play many sports and swimming and football and maybe in my school or other schools I can get treated differently because I want to play a sport that is mainly played by boys or known to be played by boys so I can be treated differently because of my gender. Yeah, and I know Motherwell's got a good women's team, haven't they? Yep. Do you want to come in, Alex? Yes, hello everyone. Thank you so much for coming to see us and thanks also for your amazing presentations earlier, they were really inspiring. Some of you told me that this is your first time in this building and I just wondered if you knew that there was something about our country that you wanted to change would you guys know about how to go about doing that? Who would you want to speak to? And what have you learned about how our democracy works and how you can influence it and ask for a change? Yes? Kai, again? I like the fact that in the world not everybody is getting treated well but everybody is trying to fix it like the MSPs in that so I like the fact that they are helping but if I could change one thing about the world it would be no worse. That's a really noble thing to want to change but also you guys are the future, we're sat here just now but in 15, 20 years this could be you and in fact I think it may well be you in some cases so it's important to know how this place works and how your voice is as important as everybody else's. Yeah, Amanda? Yes? I would like to talk about gender stereotype because it's all over media and newspapers and I don't like the fact that people gender stereotype because if like stereotypically a voice colour is blue and green and I love the colour blue and green I don't think that a lot of people do gender stereotyping because they think you're a girl so you're weak and you don't care and I'm a boy and I'm strong and I don't think that that's right. Excellent point Annie. Just what Hannah was saying about playing football I played football when I was wee as well I like to play football and tennis and I was probably better than the boys at both of them but I was sort of a called a tomboy which didn't really bother me because I enjoyed playing the football and things like that but you're right, we don't make it that we can play together it's like girls play in one team and boys play in the other and the same with gender stereotyping as well Amanda it's like I don't like wearing dresses and high heels so some people sort of are looking go you're maybe not a girl as much but I'm a girl because that's who I am and it doesn't matter whether I want to look glamorous and I don't want to be a princess and I want to be a football player I shouldn't make any difference to who I am and how people treat me Hannah It's like a lot of people don't notice when they're doing these things and if we don't notice these things then we're not going to be able to change them so I think in schools we should maybe do another lesson on this or something to let people know they're doing things like this because before we learned about this in class if I said I don't want to play football I like being a girly girl I wouldn't know what I mean by that and it just didn't mean anything but then if you look at it now once we've learned at it they kind of things could still offend us in a way Excellent point Jeremy Do you think it's easy to explain that to your mum or your dad or your granny or other older people because sometimes older people take longer to understand these things because we're a bit slow How do you explain that to your mum or your dad or your granny or how would you? I would just probably tell them because I would just sit down and say I don't want to be a girly girl as such or I don't want to dress in dresses all the time or I don't want to play football or something like that I would just tell them and explain it to them and they probably understand Do you think we listen? Yeah Good The other two boys have not contributed yet Do you want to have something to say? Do you want to tell us your name? I'm Ryan and it's about opinions it's like the cardboard thing it's not just about your opinion it's about others' opinions you say your opinion doesn't matter because it's already happened and your opinion can still exist it's not just faded away A bit of freedom of speech Hopefully we're giving you that opportunity this morning to come to Parliament and have your freedom of speech and we're listening What about you young man? When we were doing the cards I only did green Green was for stuff that were good about the Parliament Yellow was for stuff that were good like in the middle and red was for stuff that we think you really did change I only did green because I think the Parliament is really good how it is What kind of things do you think, Toby, that we do really well? I like the right Excellent Any other questions from Willie? Thank you very much and hello every day again and it was lovely to meet you today at the school when I came to see you If there's one thing more that you think we could do and should do better, what would it be? It would be to cause boy footballers are more than girls so I think they should be the same so they're on the same amount instead of like you're earning £1,000,000 a week and then a girl footballer earning £500,000 Equal pay What else? Who else? One thing The thing I think you should change is I think you should change about our vote we should be able to vote for presents or something to do around in this country or other countries because we have our own opinions and I think that that would be better for us to have something to say Alex I think that's a really good point and very recently this Parliament has acted to make sure that more young people can vote than ever before and the reason for that is that you are affected by everything that happens in this country so you deserve a stake in how we make those decisions and if you consider that actually we have really different ages for when you're old enough to make decisions right now we need to do a bit of work I think to make sure that those are better aligned but I think the voice of the children are the most important voices we should be listening to as politicians because as I said before, you guys are the future and we are making decisions now so impact on the way you're living your lives long after we're gone Is there any one thing that each of you would want us to change that would make a difference Hanna? Probably speech because speech like is in everything you do to it like really and you like can have your opinion in anything you want so it could be from in your class that you say to your teacher give your teacher an idea some schools you wouldn't be allowed to talk or give your teacher ideas but in other schools you would and I think that we should have the right to do that That's a very good point What about you, Amanda? If there's something that we should do here that would help you, what would it be? Apart from lowering the voting age I think I don't know I think gender stereotyping it goes on a lot and it kind of means a lot to other people because if other people tell them all you're weak and it kind of upsets them so it would be the country would be a nicer place if no gender stereotyping would be involved in it That's a great point What about you, Ryan? I don't know You're just having the right to be able to say what you want to say because you talked about freedom of speech and Kai? Well, I would like housing because not everybody's got a home so I'd like everybody to have shelter That's an excellent point because that was on all of the cards in our events so it was on something that we do well it was on something we need to work on and it's something in some cases we don't do so well so we heard that one loud and clear about where we need to go on housing and making sure that that works and actually the Scottish Human Rights Commission in Scotland are working with some tenants associations to make sure that they use their rights to get an adequate housing and decent shelter so you're on the money there Kai, we have your idea because there's some work being done on it already but you're absolutely right there's more work needing done to Yeah, and then I also like because I think users are like trying to do it it's getting better it's like users are improving on it because users are building more houses than now because users are extending our village to more than 700 houses it's going to take a long time but you see the differences locally Yeah Excellent and Toby, if there's one thing more that this Parliament could do to help you what would it be? I think we might need some better hospitality because my great-grand died because there's not really anything you can do about that Yeah Yeah but we're sad with you because grannies are dead important aren't they? Yeah Yeah but just having people that care for you and look at that straight away your pals in there caring for you but having people that care for you when you're having a difficult time maybe in school or at home is something that's really important Yeah Yeah, I agree with you I'm with you on that Is there anything else from our committee members that we want to say? Can I say thank you so much for coming along because this has been a brilliant experience for us and when we go and we go into the chamber and we're in other committees making decisions we will always be mindful of the information and the ideas that you've given us this morning because when we're making laws now there are laws for a couple of years down the road a couple of years down the road you guys will all be at high school or you might be starting your first job or getting your own house or going off to university or college and we need to make sure that that world is ready for you guys but they're ready for you guys with that very very good human rights based attitude and can I say well done to your teachers because I think they've done a superb job with you all and I think you should be very grateful for the work that they do certainly we are and thank you so much for coming to committee this morning because you've really helped us and I think we've got a few surprises for the rest of the day going on but we'll come to that when it happens so I'm going to close committee now on that very very very important high note of the work that you think that we should do and we've got Sean to take lots of notes so that we can take forward some of that work so thank you so much and I'll close this committee