NI Children's Commissioner is Nigel Williams

Delegates attending this year's Children in Northern Ireland AGM will hear director Pauline Leeson urge that the post be created in any future executive.

Children in Northern Ireland is the umbrella body for the voluntary child care sector.

Thursday's meeting will also be addressed by Jane Hutt, the Welsh Minister for Children.

She said her role in the Welsh Assembly was dedicated to promoting joined-up and coherent policies for children across Wales.

The minister said: "The committee aims to ensure that the Assembly Government gives priority to children and young people's needs and interests in all its work.

The strategy must implement the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in Northern Ireland and a Minister for Children and Young People Patricia Lewsley SDLP

"It oversees and measures progress in the implementation of children's rights in Wales and makes sure that our cross-cutting initiatives contribute to this."

SDLP spokesperson on children Patricia Lewsley said: "The minister's message is timely, given the impending launch of formal consultation on a 10-year Strategy for Children and Young People.

"The strategy must implement the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in Northern Ireland and a Minister for Children and Young People, with appropriate mandate and resources, dedicated to children's issues within government is necessary to monitor and review the implementation of the strategy."

Pauline Leeson said her organisation believed a Minister for Children and Young People would provide the political leadership which "would demonstrate that the government is committed to delivering on children's rights within the context of the Children and Young People's Strategy".

In June 2003, a commissioner to look after children's rights in Northern Ireland was appointed.

Nigel Williams is Commissioner for Children and Young People.