A teenager is fighting for justice for young people with a campaign to address their legal rights.
Monty Lord has started the national initiative Young Legal Eagles to educate young people on their full legal rights and how to obtain justice.
After meeting the Mayor of Bolton, Cllr Akhtar Zaman last week on Thursday, Monty, aged 16, received the mayor’s full endorsement for starting his campaign in Bolton.
The former St Joseph's RC High School pupil, said: “Children now have more rights than adults. This is improving all the time, with new children-focused legislation being further integrated into domestic law.
“What I also discovered throughout this research is that, of those children who are aware of their own rights, they face some substantial hurdles to addressing these rights in court.
“Whilst the judicial system in the UK is slowly making some changes to its procedures, it has a very long way to go before it can be considered ‘children-friendly.’”
Because of this, Monty launched his own campaign and wants to help young people learn their rights.
The teenager has recently started his own podcast The Full Monty Experience.
He will also feature in his own documentary, Do Children Have Rights?
Monty’s dad Fabian said: “I am so proud of him and everything he is doing and has accomplished.
“He does it all himself and has always been passionate about good causes like this.
“He just needed my signed permission but other than that, I do nothing and watch as he gets things done.
“Especially because I’ve not been well, and he has been taking care of me at the same time as doing all of this work.”
As part of his research into levels of awareness of children’s rights, he surveyed 1,892 children.
Their responses indicated that the majority of children were not aware of their rights.
Monty said: “I have a vision to do this on an even bigger scale just helping young people who don’t know the help they might have access to.
“I want to reach out to them if they’re having problems at school or ay youth clubs because adults aren’t the only ones suffering.”
Monty has also been appointed as one of the Queen’s Batonbearers, carrying the Queen’s Baton at the Commonwealth Games.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here