Informing Children of Their Rights

A common theme from the comments we've been receiving have been revolving around the Little Orange Box.  From the comments and discussions from classmates, many remember taking home the donation box but few remember the underlining reason as to why the donations were important or the role UNICEF played in promoting children rights. We feel that this time of year would be a great opportunity to inform children of their rights and privileges, however from experience, educators and caregivers are overlooking rights that may not be more well-known.

Article 5: Your family has the responsibility to help you learn to exercise your rights, and to ensure that your rights are protected.

Article 42: You have the right to know your rights! Adults should know about these rights and help you learn about them, too.

If we are not informing children of their rights, are we, as adults, violating their rights? How does one pass on this knowledge in a child friendly way? Are we not informing because we feel that children will not understand the extent of the content or simply because we did not know these rights existed?

Convention on the Rights of the Child

We know that UNICEF advocates for the rights of the children, but what are their rights?
The set of basic human rights standards are minimum privileges and freedoms that all children under the age of 18 are entitled too. The Rights are listed under the United Nations Conventions of the Rights of the Child. The Convention is a set of universally agreed set of non-negotiable standards and obligations that almost every country has agreed to. The Convention was created as a result of world leaders beginning to recognize that children under the 18 years of age needed special care and protection different from adults. The legally binding international instrument made the world recognized that children, too, are entitled to basic human rights. The Convention contains 54 articles and two Optional Protocols. Below is an overview of how the Convention protects children.

Every child is entitled to:

• the right of survival
• to develop to the fullest
• to protection from harmful influences, abuse and exploitation
• to participate fully in family, cultural and social life

The Convention protects children's rights by setting standards in:

• health care
• education
• legal, civil and social services

The four core principles of the Convention are:

• non-discrimination
• devotion to the best interests of the child
• the right to life, survival and development
• respect for the views of the child 

Reference:
UNICEF. (2013, April 4). Convention on the rights of the child. Retrieved from http://www.unicef.org/crc/