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Learn about Children's Rights from Children's Parliament

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Learn about Children's Rights from Children's Parliament

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Children's Parliament Investigates - How Professionals make rights real

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Resources - Children’s Parliament Investigates

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Resources We have created a variety of resources for Professionals to learn about children’s rights. These have been made with the Members of Children’s Parliament from both Clackmannanshire and East Lothian and include a video game and films, as well as learning modules and handy tips. Myth Busters…

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Knows your rights - downloadable teaching materials & workbooks

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Knows your rights - downloadable teaching materials & workbooks

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Know Your Rights is a pack of teaching materials to introduce key rights principles to students.

These core materials have been developed by UNICEF Netherlands and are perfect for introducing children's rights to students that are not familiar with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

This downloadable workbook and teachers pack contains a series of materials to help children learn about rights. The pack is aimed at children aged 11 to 12, but with minor adaptions could be used with younger or older age groups.

Ages: 11 to 12

The pack of downloadable materials contains:
Know Your Rights - student workbook Know Your Rights - teacher guidelines Know Your Rights - poster Know Your Rights - CRC Booklet

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Know Your Rights - Child Rights Education Core Materials - Rights Respecting Schools Award

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These core materials have been developed by UNICEF Netherlands and are perfect for introducing children's rights to students that are not familiar with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. This downloadable workbook and teachers pack contains a series of materials to help children learn about rights.

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Children's Parliament: Dignity in schools

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Children's Parliament: Dignity in schools

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Every single person in Scotland has human rights - children have rights to make sure they grow up healthy, happy and safe. Human rights come from the government - they're laws, and nobody can take them away from you. You can think of rights like promises - promises adults have made to help keep children healthy, happy and safe.

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This is a go to resource for understanding the UNCRC.

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How well are we respecting children's rights? Scotland's To Do list

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How well are we respecting children's rights? Scotland's To Do list

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How well are we respecting children’s rights?

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What is this?

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) is an international human rights treaty which was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 20 November 1989.

Who is this for?

For all those working in any sector of education to support the inclusion of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in planning and practice. This includes practitioners, headteachers, local authority staff, development and policy staff, community learning and development practitioners and parents.

About the UNCRC in education

All educators in Scotland are committed to upholding and promoting the rights of learners in a range of settings - this is supported by professional standards and the proposed incorporation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) into Scots Law. If passed, the Bill will ensure that children's rights are respected and protected in the law in Scotland, and, public authorities will be legally required to respect and protect children's rights in all the work that they do.

The Scottish Government remains committed to the incorporation of UNCRC and is working closely with Westminster Government to finalise an amended Bill. Read more: UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill - United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child implementation: introductory guidance

In addition to the UNCRC treaty, the Scottish Government is looking to incorporate a further four human rights treaties as part of their wider Human Rights Bill, including measures which will improve equality and human rights on an environmental, social, economic and cultural scale. It is worth noting that all human rights treaties apply to children as well as the UNCRC. Read more about these conventions: New Human Rights Bill.

Protecting children's rights

The UNCRC describes what every child, from birth to 18-years-old, needs to survive, grow and thrive in order to live with dignity and achieve their potential. Protecting children's rights is at the heart of the Scottish Government's agenda, in order that every child feels empowered to be active citizens in their early learning and childcare setting, school, local community and across the world.

Things to know about the UNCRC and children's rights in Scotland

Every child has the same rights, whatever their ethnicity, gender, religion, language, abilities or any other status

Children do not need to earn their rights and the rights do not come with responsibilities

The UNCRC says that governments have to make sure all children can enjoy all their rights

People in authority should think about children's rights when making decisions that affect them

The UNCRC says the best interests of the child should be a primary consideration in all decisions and actions that affect children

The UNCRC recognises the important role played by parents, carers and family members in ensuring children grow up healthy, happy and safe

All children should have a right to express their views in matters affecting them and for their views to be taken into account

Scotland has a Children and Young People's Commissioner whose job it is to protect and promote children's rights in Scotland

There will be support for children and their representatives to raise concerns if their rights are not being respected

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United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child

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Education Scotland is a Scottish Government executive agency responsible for supporting quality and improvement in Scottish education.

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'What are Children's Rights' training ppt

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'What are Children's Rights' training ppt

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SG Guidance: Taking a children's human rights approach

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SG Guidance: Taking a children's human rights approach

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1. Introduction

The purpose of this guidance is to provide information and resources to support public authorities and other organisations to implement a children's human rights approach. This may also assist public authorities to meet their current duties under the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 and to prepare for their duties under section 6 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation)(Scotland) Act 2024. When the UNCRC Act comes into force on 16 July 2024, section 6 of the Act will place a duty on public authorities not to act incompatibly with the 'UNCRC requirements' as defined by section 1 of the Act.

1.1 Summary of the contents of this guidance

The content of the Guidance consists of the following sections:

1. an introduction to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC);

2. an introduction to the UNCRC (Incorporation)(Scotland) Act;

3. methods to embed children's human rights approaches in practice: decision-making; budget allocation; inclusive communication; awareness raising; participation of children; child friendly complaints and advocacy, including case studies, good practice examples and further resources;

4. links to other relevant policy areas.

This guidance does not cover legal duties which will come into force when the UNCRC Act commences on 16 July 2024. Statutory guidance will be issued for Part 2 (section 6: Compatibility Duty on Public Authorities) and Part 3 (section 18: Reporting Duties on Public Authorities) of the UNCRC Act, to support public authorities to fulfil their duties.

Further case studies on taking a children's human rights approach are provided in annexes, to support public authorities to learn from existing practice.

1.2 Who is the guidance for?

This guidance is issued on a non-statutory basis to provide those involved in public service delivery in Scotland with an introduction to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and support them to implement a children's human rights approach and give effect to children's rights in practice.

A children's human rights approach is not just relevant to children and young person's services. All decisions made about, and actions taken to deliver public services may impact on the rights and wellbeing of children and young people. It is vital to the realisation of children's rights for all those carrying out public functions to consider children's rights in their work.

1.3 How is the guidance to be used?

The UNCRC Act not only places legal duties on public authorities but also intends to improve the culture of children's rights in Scotland. This guidance on how public authorities, and other organisations, can take a children's human rights approach aims to support this shift to ensure they consider the UNCRC in the delivery of their services and take actions now to make children's rights real.

Public authorities in Scotland already consider children's rights in decision-making, and to help provide every child with a good start in life and a safe, healthy and happy childhood. The Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 places duties on certain public authorities to report on what they are doing to progress children's rights. Furthermore, the UNCRC forms the basis of Scotland's national approach for supporting children,  Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC) and fulfilling children's rights is critical to ongoing work on  The Promise and to reduce child poverty.

This guidance is intended to build on these strong foundations, to support public authorities to further embed consideration of the UNCRC, and to encourage wider adoption of a children's human rights approach.

1.4 How was the guidance developed?

This guidance was informed by engagement with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC): Embedding Children's Rights in Public Services Guidance Sub-Group, which includes representative public authorities, third sector organisations and children's rights bodies. Members are well placed to bring the wider views of stakeholders, such as children and young people and non-represented public authorities to the work of the Group.

In addition, the guidance benefited from engagement with local authority UNCRC Peer leads and information provided by children and families on the Children and Families panel who are supporting development of a Child Rights Skills and Knowledge Framework.

1.5 What will I learn?

The aims of this guidance are to:

Provide a brief summary of human rights, children's rights and the UNCRC.

Raise awareness of the ambition for children's human rights in Scotland and set out the Scottish Government's actions to implement the UNCRC to date.

Provide an update on the UNCRC (Incorporation)(Scotland) Act.

Provide information and resources to support you to take a children's human rights approach to planning and delivery of services.

Clarify links between the UNCRC, key policies and existing Scottish legislation.

Share relevant case studies on taking a children's human rights approach.

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Taking a children's human rights approach: guidance

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Scottish Government guidance to provide information and resources to support public authorities and other organisations to implement a children's human rights approach.

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Using Child Rights Impact Assessments (CRIA's)

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Using Child Rights Impact Assessments (CRIA's)

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A Step by Step Guide to Child Rights Impact Assessments

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A collection of links, resources and documents that relate to Children’s Rights and CLD.

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Scot Govs introduction to Children's Rights 10-min training tool

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Scot Govs introduction to Children's Rights 10-min training tool

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STEP's frequently asked questions about school attendance and travelling

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STEP's frequently asked questions about school attendance and travelling

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Equity and equality in school resource for teachers

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Equity and equality in school resource for teachers

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Resources for school working toward the Rights Respecting Schools award

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Resources for school working toward the Rights Respecting Schools award

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Here you'll find all the Rights Respecting teaching resources you need to help you teach about children's rights in school.

Teaching and learning about rights is an essential part of becoming a Rights Respecting school and our resources provide great support for school staff to teach children and young people about children's rights and global citizenship.

We also share examples of materials created by schools as well as useful links to external resources that can help teachers, children and young people deepen their understanding of human rights and global citizenship.

You can also download the forms and guides you need for your Rights Respecting journey and find a number of materials in Welsh (Adnoddau cymraeg).

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Resources for Rights Respecting Schools - UNICEF UK

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Find resources to help you teach and learn about children's rights and global citizenship, including education resources created by UNICEF UK.