Children’s rights
Every child and young person has rights, no matter who they are or where they live. Nearly every government in the world has promised to protect, respect and fulfil these rights, yet they are still violated worldwide.
Children’s rights are enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), an international statement on the rights of children. It's based on the world’s first declaration on children’s rights, written by our founder Eglantyne Jebb in 1923, and covers:
- personal rights, such as the right to a name and a nationality and freedom of thought
- access to services, such as clean water and food, education and state support for a child’s family
- protection from exploitation, violence, neglect and abuse.
Governments rarely prioritise children, and fail to recognise that they have rights. We protect children’s rights by:
- helping establish children’s ombudsmen and independent human rights institutions - which help empower children to lobby for their rights
- ensuring children and young people get their views are heard by decision makers
- campaigning to get children's rights included in laws and policies
- supporting organisations which promote and protect children’s rights
- Legislation - ensure that all legislation is in full compliance with the UNCRC
- Resources - Increase government spending on children and ensure that the resources are being used effectively
- Monitoring - establish independent ombudsmen for the protection and promotion of child rights in every country and an international complaints procedure for the UNCRC
How you can get involved
Please work with child rights coalitions in your country and send this letter jointly with other organisations, if appropriate (feel free to adapt it as needed).
We believe in the transformative power of the UNCRC – but it needs to be further implemented and continuously monitored, to ensure children’s rights become children’s realities.
- Read the play script
- Policy Briefing: Making children's rights a reality
- Learn more about the UNCRC with our CD-Rom training kit
