Rights
Children's rights have been at the cornerstone of the participation agenda for the past 30 years. The fundamental values of children’s human rights – respecting children as individuals with equal worth and an inherent right to live a life with dignity – are entwined throughout the participation agenda.
Children are guaranteed a wide range of human rights through a series of human rights instruments. However, recognising the unique needs of early life, the international community has agreed a specific human rights treaty for children. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child applies to all those aged 17 and under. Adopted by the UN in 1989, it gives children and young people a set of comprehensive set of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. It includes specific rights to guarantee children's participation in all matters affecting them. By 1997, every country in the world except the USA and Somalia had ratified the UNCRC, making it one of the world’s most widely and quickly ratified human rights instruments.
In 1991, with cross party support, the UK Government agreed to implement the Convention. In doing so the UK has pledged to make all the rights in the Convention a reality for all children in the UK. While the Convention is not currently part of UK law, it is international law and UK courts may make reference to the UNCRC when making judgements.
In England the Department for Education (DfE) is responsible for implementing the Convention. Sarah Teather MP, Minister of State for Children and Families, has ministerial responsibility for the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Other international treaties also give children specific rights, including freedom to express themselves. The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is incorporated into domestic law through the Human Rights Act 1998. It enables citizens of the UK - including children and young people - to protect their ECHR rights through domestic courts, and if necessary to take their complaints to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.
