By Jordan Linden MSYP (@JLindenMSYP), Chair of the Scottish Youth Parliament

On Wednesday 2^nd and Thursday 3^rd September, the Vice Chairperson of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, Ms. Amal Aldoseri will visit Scotland to hear directly from Scotland’s children and young people about their experiences of life here in our country.

The visit will help the UN Committee with its consideration of how Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom are performing in relation to promoting and protecting the rights of children and young people as outlined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

For me, this is an incredible opportunity for children and young people to have their voices heard loudly, clearly and directly by the United Nations about what they feel is working well, and what needs to be improved.As the democratically elected voice of Scotland’s young people, Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People, Tam Baillie, has asked the Scottish Youth Parliament, and myself as the newly elected Chair along with our Board, to act as the key host for the duration of the visit, on behalf of Scotland’s children and young people.

At the Scottish Youth Parliament, our role is to represent and make strong links with the young people we represent locally. Therefore, during Ms Aldoseri’s visit we will be escorting her around a number of projects and discussion groups to showcase the fantastic work many organisations do to promote the rights and the participation of children and young people, but also to highlight the areas where we can work together to improve.

As part of the visit, we want to make sure that young people across Scotland can get involved and feel like they are a part of Ms Aldoseri’s visit, wherever they may live in our country. That’s why we are encouraging young people across Scotland to tweet their questions, views or thoughts using #TellTheUN! During the course of the visit and afterwards, we’ll do our best to ensure as many of your views are conveyed to Amal as possible.

I feel incredibly proud and privileged that SYP has been asked to act as the host to Ms Aldoseri during her visit – and the opportunity to once again work in partnership with organisations across Scotland who share our commitment to ensuring the rights of children and young people are promoted and protected is one which we relish.

So in closing, I’d really like to urge all young people to take the opportunity to share their views with Ms Aldoseri during her visit so we can ensure that the genuine voices of young people are heard!

Remember, all you need to do is tweet using #TellTheUN!