Talk:Nigel Williams (children's rights activist)

Rationale; further information very much wanted

Nigel Williams (birth time and place unknown; death month April 2006) was the first Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People, and already thus clearly should be noteworthy enough for an article. Moreover, he founded the Childnet. Unhappily, I cannot find out much more about him. I employ most of what I found in the two sources I give (except value judgements); however, they are rather short. I've not employed the following from the first source (the short biography in Previous Commissioners page; note that this is "© NICCY 2019. All rights reserved", and thus only may be employed for its factual content):

In 2001 the Home Secretary appointed him to the Task Force on Child Protection.

I've not been able to identify that "Task Force on Child Protection". Moreover, what kind of 'honour' he was presented with by the University of Namur is not clear from the short biography; might it have been some honourable university degree? JoergenB (talk) 17:24, 25 December 2019 (UTC)

A few more web references:

• Deploring his death 28 March (which is rather early for being in April??; otherwise nothing new), by Emily Logan, then Children's Commissioner in Eire;

and, really somewhat useful (and already available on our page Commissioner for Children and Young People, Northern Ireland),

• The Guardian's N. W. 'profile'.

Unhappily, there was not much new about his prior life and activities. The most concrete was the following (copyright The Guardian, reproduced here only for its factual content)

Mr Williams, who is married with four children, comes from Limavady, County Londonderry, but has worked in London since the early 1980s.

He has held positions in a number of children's charities and in 2001 was appointed to the Home Office taskforce on child protection on the internet.

The four children also are mentioned in the Previous Commissioners page. "Comes from" should be interpreted as "Born in", shouldn't it? "The Home Office taskforce on child protection on the internet" might not to be impossible to find.
Otherwise, the most interesting fact was that youngsters seemingly had an influential rôle in picking Williams for the position. JoergenB (talk) 19:49, 25 December 2019 (UTC)

• Williams's prize winner talk in Namur.
• Information about the "IFIP-WG9.2 Namur Award", which clearly is not a usual 'honours degree'. All prise winners. Here IFIG clearly refers to the International Federation of Information Processing, and WG9.2 to its workgroup for Social Accountability and Computing. JoergenB (talk) 20:16, 25 December 2019 (UTC)
• Necrolog by Childnet. This confirms the fact mentioned in Williams's Namur talk that he remained Childnet director until he was appointed "niccy". It also mentiones that he "continued in his job as Commissioner up until February 2006 when he was admitted into Belfast City Hospital". An official announcement from the NICCY office itself is mentioned. Date of death confirmed as 2006-03-28, indeed.
• NICCY memorial event, August 2006. In a keynote speatch at this event, he was consistently named "Nigel William" (no 's).