Childrens Rights Checklist
Introduction
Children and young people under 18 need special protection of their human rights because:
- they cannot vote
- adult policies and actions affect them
- they are still developing, and meeting or not meeting their rights will affect them for a long future.
Some children have extra problems, for example:
- being poor, racism, disability, being unable to live with their own families, having no home, refugee status, living in the country, caring responsibilities, family breakdown, violence, not receiving education.
The most complete statement of children’s rights is the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. This is the most widely supported human rights agreement in the world, and has been signed by almost every country in the world.
Why do we need the checklist?
To set out standards on Children’s Rights, owned by all organisations and by families and children themselves, to be built into all policy documents, planning proposals, projects, applications for money, contracts, standards and the monitoring of these.
To ensure everyone who plans or delivers services which affect children and young people
- thinks about children’s rights in relation to the service they are providing
- seeks and acts on the views of children and young people
- is able to show that children’s rights are reflected in the way that their organisation works with children and young people.
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