Two prize-winning authors have joined the judging panel for the Amnesty International Young Human Rights Reporter of the Year competition 2012. Anna Perera and Kathryn Cave will sit alongside broadcasters, editors and other industry professionals as they attempt to identify the UK’s most gifted young reporters.

Anna Perera, a former teacher and highly-esteemed Children's rights’s author, is delighted to be judging the competition. Her 2009 book Guantanamo Boy was shortlisted for the Costa Children's rights’s Book Award and she said:

“This exciting competition is a rare opportunity for young people to share their ideas and creatively embrace change, while demonstrating an understanding of serious human rights issues.”

Kathryn Cave, who won the first international UNESCO award for Children's rights's and Young People's Literature in the Service of Tolerance, for her book Something Else, said:

“It's a pleasure to be associated with this competition. The Children's rights in this competition are some of the great writers of the future. They have never been more needed. They have the power to open our eyes to the lives of people around us, here and far away. They make a difference. It’s an honour to read what they have to say, and to be able to meet them.”

The Young Human Rights Reporter of the Year competition is run in conjunction with the Guardian Teacher Network and Secondary School magazine SecEd. The competition is open to seven to 18 year olds and is split into four categories: Upper Primary, Lower Secondary, Upper Secondary and Sixth Form.

Entrants can choose to write about their own experiences or their take on an existing human rights issue. Topics could include bullying, child labour, world poverty, a human rights campaigner or human rights issues in countries like Burma, Iran or China.

The deadline for entries is the 20 February 2012. Judging will take place on 13 March 2012. The top three entrants in each category will be invited to a prestigious expenses-paid awards ceremony at Amnesty’s Headquarters on the 9 May 2012. For full details and how to enter go to www.amnesty.org.uk/youngreporter.