Your voice
Speak up and be heard
Elections usually come around in five-year cycles, but democracy doesn鈥檛 wait. Laws are being written every day. Your opinion about them matters and it鈥檚 important to speak up and be heard.
What can you do to influence government?
Contacting officials
If you have concerns about a law that is being passed in Parliament, in the Northern Ireland Assembly, or in your local council, you can write to your representative and tell them about it.
Contacting the media
You can put extra pressure on elected representatives by getting in touch with the media about your story. You can contact local newspapers like the Belfast Telegraph, or radio and television stations.
If your issue has relevance to the whole country you could get in touch with national media like The Telegraph, The Guardian, or the 大象传媒. They might contact you to cover your story, or ask you to be a source for a story they鈥檙e already running.
Most newspapers have a 鈥榣etters to the editor鈥 section. If you read a story that speaks to you, why not speak back? Not all letters are published, but if you bring a new perspective to a story you might find yourself in print.
Petition
The government must listen to us when we speak. One of the best ways to get them to hear us is through a petition. A petition is a letter that explains our problem with a law or policy, signed by people who agree with us.
The more signatures on the letter, the louder it speaks. If a national petition reaches 100,000 signatures, it must be debated in Parliament.
Protest
A protest is a public gathering, where people express their dissatisfaction with a law or policy of the government, an organisation, a company, or another country.
Protests have had an important role in shaping our world. Protest has helped women win the right to vote, helped win equality for black people in America and Catholics in Northern Ireland, and brought the USA鈥檚 involvement in the Vietnam War to an end.
Protest has been central to the struggle for gay and lesbian rights, and the rights of workers to join trade unions.
Article 11 of the Human Rights Act gives everyone the right to protest. The right only applies to peaceful gatherings, not violent protest. Nevertheless, it means that we can confront the government whenever we feel they are not working for us.
Boycotts
We make decisions about what we buy every day. These small decisions add up and help to shape the world at large. You can think about your purchases as voting with your money. Political activists sometimes call for a boycott of goods that are produced in unethical ways.
Ivory is an example. Ivory is made from the tusks of elephants which are an endangered species. Ivory boycotts brought the government鈥檚 attention to the problem of elephant poaching, and led to the introduction of laws to restrict ivory sales.
Some ivory sales are still legal in the UK, and activists are pressuring government to introduce a total ban.