Essay on Child Rights for Students in English [500+ Words]
January 3, 2021 by Sandeep
Essay on Child Rights: The sound development of a child in terms of physical, mental, emotional and social growth is the essential right of every child. Children can express their claim to these rights without any hesitation. Right to education is also a fundamental right, and these factors have been placed on world agenda tables. The UN General Assembly has adopted these rights as universal claims, and any form of discrimination/ violence against children can attract penal action against offenders.
Essay on Child Rights 500 Words in English
Below we have provided Child Rights Essay in English, suitable for class 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 & 10.
Child rights are the sub-category of human rights catering, especially to the children in terms of their health, education, recreation, family, etc. It also highlights their development and age-appropriate needs that change a passage of time. Three general principles foster all children’s rights,
Non-discrimination – under this, every child is treated equally and has a right to strengthen their potential at all times. For instance, every child will gain access to education irrespective of its gender, nationality, caste, disability or another status.
Opinion of the child – the child wants to be heard and understood; that’s why the voice of the children is pivotal in their overall development. For example, the parents or the elders of the house should take into consideration their children’s needs before making decisions that will further cause damage.
Right to inclusive education – A child with a disability should receive equal access to training and development without being neglected.
United Nation Convention has listed the below rights for the children who come under the age of 18. These rights embody the freedom of children, favourable family environment, leisure, education, health care and cultural activities.
Right to Survival
Right to live with respect.
Right to be born.
Right to have access to basic food, clothing and shelter.
Right to Protection
Right to be protected from violence.
Right to be protected from drugs.
Right to be protected from exploitation.
Right to be protected from abandon.
Right to Participation
Right to freedom of voice.
Right to freedom of expression.
Right to freedom to form an association.
Right to information.
Right to Development
Right to learn and explore.
Right to rest and play.
Right to seek education.
Right to overall development-emotional, physical and psychological.
Significance of Children’s Rights
Children’s are not a commodity or an item to be owned by the parents or the society, but an individual who possesses equal status as a member of the human race. They have their likes and dislikes, which assists them to harness their energy for future growth. Parents can love, care and nurture children through guidance and advice gradually. They need to be thrust towards independence continuously. The sense of accountability needs to be developed by providing necessary tasks so that they realize their value and voice.
The course of their progress determines the future of the children and the country as a whole. The devastating changes like climate change, globalisation, the disintegration of the family, mass migration, etc. affects children to a massive level crippling their identity and social welfare. In situations like armed conflict and other national emergencies, the conditions worsen. Children are vulnerable and susceptible to health risks. The repercussions of disease, malnutrition and poverty endanger their future potential.
They fall prey to sordid living conditions, poor health-care, lack of safe water and housing and environmental damage. Because of all these reasons, children are deprived of the proper home as they are left on the streets. Not only the government but also the citizens of the nation should take charge of enhancing their requirements and taking an initiative to bring change. It is paramount to show respect and appreciation towards children as it helps them to develop healthy mentally. By doing so, their personality is not disabled, and they feel part of society.
10 Lines on Child Rights
The declaration of Child’s Right was established in the year 1924.
The rights were formulated by saving the children founder, Eglantyne Jebb.
The most important rights are- survival, developmental, protection and participation rights.
It is an extension of human rights, especially for children below 18 years of age.
These rights emphasize on the age-appropriate needs.
The violation of the rights includes violence, poverty, and discrimination.
The United Nation Convention has further elaborated the rights for better understanding and knowledge.
Through these rights, the government is encouraging people to contribute through donations, adoption and sponsorship.
Also, these rights stress on having their opinion and say in every decision taken for their betterment.
The government, through its efforts, is urging people to be vigilant around what is happening and report if there is any violation regarding the rights of the children.
Essay on Child Rights
Students are often asked to write an essay on Child Rights in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.
Let’s take a look…
100 Words Essay on Child Rights
Understanding child rights.
Child rights are fundamental freedoms that every child should enjoy. They include the right to life, education, health, and protection from harm. These rights are recognized by the United Nations and are meant to ensure that every child grows up in a safe, healthy, and nurturing environment.
Importance of Child Rights
Child rights are important because they ensure that children are treated with respect and dignity. They help safeguard children from exploitation and abuse. They also guarantee that children have access to basic services like education and healthcare.
Role of Society
Everyone in society has a role to play in upholding child rights. Parents, teachers, and government officials should all work together to ensure that children’s rights are respected and protected. This includes providing children with opportunities to learn, grow, and thrive.
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250 Words Essay on Child Rights
Introduction to child rights.
Child rights are the fundamental entitlements that every child should enjoy, regardless of their race, gender, religion, or socioeconomic status. These rights are enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), which serves as a universal standard for safeguarding the well-being of children.
The Four Pillars of Child Rights
The UNCRC outlines four primary aspects of child rights: survival, development, protection, and participation. Survival rights ensure children have access to basic necessities like food, shelter, and healthcare. Development rights encompass education, play, and leisure, facilitating holistic growth. Protection rights guard children against exploitation, abuse, and neglect. Lastly, participation rights empower children to express their views and be active contributors to society.
Current State of Child Rights
Despite global efforts, child rights violations persist. Poverty, conflict, and social inequality often result in inadequate access to education, healthcare, and safe living conditions. Child labour, trafficking, and exploitation are prevalent issues, particularly in developing nations.
Future Implications and Conclusion
Upholding child rights is crucial for sustainable development. A society where children’s rights are respected is likely to foster individuals who are healthy, educated, and capable of contributing positively to societal growth. It is imperative that governments, non-governmental organizations, and individuals collectively work towards creating an environment conducive to the realization of child rights. The fight for child rights is not just about the present, but also about securing a promising future for the next generation.
500 Words Essay on Child Rights
Introduction.
Child rights are fundamental freedoms and the inherent rights of all human beings below the age of 18. These rights apply to every child, irrespective of their race, religion, or abilities. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), adopted in 1989, is a comprehensive human rights treaty that enshrines specific child rights in international law. These rights, broadly categorized into survival rights, developmental rights, protection rights, and participation rights, form the basis of ensuring a healthy and fulfilled childhood.
Child rights are specialized human rights that consider the unique needs and vulnerabilities of children. They are guided by four fundamental principles: non-discrimination, the best interests of the child, the right to life, survival, and development, and respect for the views of the child. These principles aim to provide an environment where children are nurtured, protected, and empowered to become responsible adults.
Challenges to Child Rights
Despite the universal recognition of child rights, numerous challenges hinder their implementation. Poverty, armed conflict, discrimination, and lack of access to education and healthcare are some of the significant obstacles. Child labor, child trafficking, and child marriage are grave violations of child rights that persist in many parts of the world. These challenges require concerted efforts from governments, civil society, and communities to tackle effectively.
Protecting Child Rights: The Way Forward
Protecting child rights requires a multi-faceted approach. Firstly, governments must enact and enforce laws that protect child rights and ensure that these laws are in line with international standards. Secondly, raising awareness about child rights among children, parents, and communities is crucial. Thirdly, establishing child-friendly systems and structures, such as child-sensitive courts and child-friendly schools, can significantly improve the realization of child rights.
Child rights are indispensable for the growth, development, and well-being of children. They are not just moral obligations or legal requirements but form the bedrock of a just and inclusive society. While significant strides have been made in recognizing and protecting child rights, much more needs to be done. It is only when every child can fully enjoy their rights that we can truly claim to uphold the principles of human dignity, equity, and justice enshrined in the concept of child rights.
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Home — Essay Samples — Social Issues — Child Protection — The Effectiveness of the Convention on the Children’s Rights
The Effectiveness of The Convention on The Children's Rights
Categories: Child Protection
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Published: May 17, 2022
Words: 3053 | Pages: 7 | 16 min read
Table of contents
Introduction, the vulnerability of children, the convention on the rights of the child, the crc achievements and key challenges.
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Children’s Rights and the Means of Their Protection Essay
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Children’s rights are at massive risk of violation because children lack independence from their parents and parental guardians. Therefore, children cannot fully represent their interests and often do not even acknowledge their rights. Thus, society’s responsibility is to address the violations of the children’s rights and ensure their protection. Especially during the crisis, such as coronavirus pandemic, children have suffered from various negative impacts such as the economic slump, high level of unemployment, and high mortality rate across the globe.
Even though children have less severe symptoms in case of contacting coronavirus than other age groups, they still experience significant adverse impacts of the pandemic. Raman et al. (2020) have developed a strategy of protecting children’s rights during the COVID-19 outbreaks to minimize the short- and long-term devastating effects on children’s lives. They call for visibility of children and young people during the pandemic, universal access to quality healthcare for children of all ages, proactive assessment of their families and communities, and recognition of orphaned children. Therefore, it is essential to provide the needed care to the young population during this challenging time because they cannot advocate for their rights themselves.
Universally, both intended and non-intended harm towards children is punished more severely than towards adults. For example, many countries consider a sexual assault of children, especially by people who have reached the legal age of majority, as a more severe crime than a sexual assault of adults. Moreover, the offender is punished not only from the legal perspective but also is subjected to heavy ostracization from society, whereas, for example, adult victims in certain communities are judged more than the perpetrator of the assault.
Human service workers need to pay extra attention to the young population, and they have to perform patience and empathy while communicating with a child. Children are less skillful than adults in expressing their needs and discomfort; therefore, social workers are responsible for representing children’s rights correctly. For example, the human service worker’s responsibility is to identify a child’s unique conditions, such as health conditions, trauma, and other irregular needs that children cannot declare themselves.
In order to raise awareness for children’s rights, it is crucial to conduct and implement policies aimed to provide the needed support for children. Such policies can be applied to specific conditions such as the COVID-19 crisis or humanitarian disasters, or there also policies that represent children’s interest in general. Governments should devote their resources to developing and updating these policies, depending on their results and received feedback. They also need to provide legal and human assistance to enforce them so that children can be protected in various spheres of life, such as at home, school, or in the courtroom.
In conclusion, children require a proper representation of their interests by adults and governmental institutions, especially during times of crisis. They are the most vulnerable social group because not only do they not have autonomy, they are also easily subjected to negative influence and rarely possess comprehensive knowledge about their rights. Moreover, there are also children from poor social-economic backgrounds who are even less protected. Therefore, specific measures need to be applied to ensure the safety of the young population, with the focus on children with special needs or who suffer from painful conditions.
Raman, S., Harries, M., Nathawad, R., Kyeremateng, R., Seth, R., Lonne, B. (2020). Where do we go from here? A child rights-based response to COVID-19. BMJ Paediatrics Open, 4 (1), e000714. Web.
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Paragraph on Child Rights
Children are the part of society who decides the destiny of the country. Their protection and development is the responsibility of the government of the country, which they fulfilled through child rights. You can have detailed information about it through the paragraphs below. I would suggest you go through all of them to check its usefulness for you.
Short and Long Paragraphs on Child Rights
Paragraph 1 – 100 words.
The term ‘Child Rights’ means some basic rights that every child of a nation should have. The Child Rights are available for children without any religious, racial or any other discrimination. Almost all the countries of the world have become serious for the rights to children. They are making every effort in this step.
Our Indian government has also done commendable work in this direction. The most suitable example of it, is making primary education free and compulsory for every child. Making child labour a criminal offence is another great work by the Indian Government. We should also stand in support of Child Rights.
Paragraph 2 – 120 Words
The United Nations and the Government of India have determined the rights and policies for children. Children get the rights of their identity, security, education, health, food, and equality right from their birth, without any caste, religion and gender discrimination.
According to the Commission for Protection of Child Rights Act 2005, child rights include all rights of children (boys and girls) which were accepted by the United Nations Children’s Rights Convention on 20 November 1989 and agreed by the Government of India on 11 December 1992.
Child Rights include rights to live, growth/development, protection, participation and education etc. These child rights are available to all children in India without any discrimination or delay. They prepare children for a better future.
Paragraph 3 – 150 Words
There was a declaration of Child Right called ‘Geneva Declaration of Child Right in 1924, which the United Nations adopted in 1959. India implemented this Child Rights on 20 November 2007 in every part of the Nation. These rights are for saving children from abuses, trafficking and violence, and working on their all-round development.
The Child Rights act in India ensures that every child of India has the right to identity, health, education, family-life, opinion. It also provides every child with protection from violence, armed conflict and exploitation as well. These are the fundamental rights of children in India without discrimination based on the caste, religion, colour or any other.
‘Child’s Rights’ is a very crucial term that seeks everyone’s attention. The Indian Government has created a constitutional body in 2007, which keeps its eye on the matters related to the rights of children in India.
Paragraph 4 – 200 Words
Not only India but the whole world has laid great emphasis on the development of its children. The governments of all the countries are working at their level to promote the childhood and mental development of children, just as the child gets the right to live from the 20th week of pregnancy in India.
Children are that part of society which lacks social knowledge and awareness. Anyone can misuse their innocence and put them in child abuse. They are the most vulnerable, hence are most affected by the society which can destroy their childhood as well as their life completely.
We have witnessed it many times in our society that some mentally unhealthy parents put their child in a very deplorable situation due to their inability or desire to work. These children don’t get what they need or deserve and forcibly work to feed themselves and their family.
It is sometimes when children raise their voice for what they need, but the society ignores them. The child rights like the right to education, right to expression and right to survive will yield them the power they should have to build a strong future for them. Child Right is important to establish the foundation of a nation.
Paragraph 5 – 250 Words
The ‘Child Rights’ is a constitutional and essential term that our society needs the most. Child Right includes all the basic rights that our constitution provides to the children of India. The child right is for survival, protection, development and participation of the children which nation should necessarily grant them.
According to the Indian Constitution, every boy and girl under the age of 18 is a child, and it is the part of life in which they experience the most of the mental growth. They should have some basic rights to attain freedom and enjoy life so that they can differentiate between justice and injustice.
India’s commission for the protection of children’s rights (act 2005 and amended in 2006) has some basic and special provisions for every child in India. The Child Right Commission ensures the rights of every single child and keeps a record of it for future programmes.
Some fundamental rights of children under the constitution are the right to education, right to life, the right to protection and freedom of expression and right to identity. To make all these right reach every child of India, the government is constantly working on promoting some awareness programmes and campaigns.
Although the Government of India and many public institutions are taking important steps in the field of child rights, all of us also need to extend our support. We should immediately report the complaint of any child abuse happening around us or in our knowledge to the nearest police station.
FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions
Ans. Child rights can help children to get rid of exploitation and give them chance to get education.
Ans. National Commission for Protection of Child Rights is established for welfare of children.
Ans. The 11th fundamental duty asks to education to children.
Ans. Child is exploited by labour, pornography and harassment in India.
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Violence Against Children and Children’s Rights
By: Esteban Ortiz-Ospina and Max Roser
Children are entitled to the same fundamental rights as adults , but because of their age, they require special protection and care.
Key rights of children include the right to a safe environment, the right to education , the right to play, and to be heard in decisions that affect them.
Protecting these rights is crucial for children to have fulfilling childhoods and continue to thrive as adults.
Unfortunately, violations of these rights are common and often accepted. Many children are coerced into work or early marriage, or suffer emotional, physical, or sexual abuse.
On this page, you can find data and visualizations on how the protection of children’s rights differs across countries and how common violence against children is.
Interactive charts on violence against children and children’s rights
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Children’s Views on Children’s Rights: A Systematic Literature Review
Children’s rights are set out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. This systematic literature review aimed to investigate children’s views of children’s rights, at a broad level. Nine papers were included, from a range of countries and contexts. They all accessed the views of children and young people (aged up to 18 years). A content analysis was carried out using a recursive process of hybrid aggregative-configurative synthesis, and themes within children’s views and factors that may affect these were identified. These were ‘awareness of rights’, ‘value placed on (importance of) rights’, ‘impact of having/not having rights fulfilled’, ‘realisation and respect of rights’, ‘equality of rights’, ‘identifying and categorising of rights’, and ‘factors that may affect children’s views’. These were developed into a progression of rights realisation and implications for practice and further research were considered.
1 Introduction
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child ( uncrc ) sets out rights of every child, consisting of 54 Articles which include civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights for all children (Save the Children, n.d.-b ; unicef , 2005 ; United Nations, 1989 ). Further to the specific Articles of the uncrc , there are four overarching core principles: of non-discrimination, devotion to the best interests of the child, the rights to life, survival and development, and respect for the views of the child (often referenced as participation or “children’s voice”) ( United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, 2003 ; Woods and Bond, 2014 ). Notably, however, the conceptualisation and integration of these “general principles” at their foundation within the uncrc has been shown to be weak ( Hanson and Lundy, 2017 ). Whilst this review does not take a specific focus on the participation principle, often specifically related to Articles 12–17, it does relate to the rationale of this review which has a focus upon children’s views of their rights. Since the uncrc has been established, significant amounts of scholarly, research and practitioner attention has focused upon this ( Anderson and Graham, 2016 ; Quennerstedt and Moody, 2020 ; Sargeant and Gillett-Swan, 2015 ; Wyse, 2001 ).
Since the adoption of the uncrc , the principles have frequently been divided into three groups (often known as the 3 Ps), of provision, protection and participation ( Hammarberg, 1990 ; Thomas, 2011 ). Quennerstedt (2010: 633) argues that these in fact have a hampering effect and suggests ‘constructing what children’s rights are about from a general human rights language of civil, political and social rights will form a better base for research’.
The “3Ps”, the four guiding principles, and the 54 Articles have created much research and critical debate both from children’s rights scholars and from those working within the framework of the uncrc ( Hanson and Lundy, 2017 ). Byrne and Lundy (2019) , focusing on creation of rights-based policy, described the comprehensiveness of the uncrc as one of its many advantages, but also noted that even from the four principles, there tends to be a focus on two of these (best interests and participation), arguably distorting overall understanding. Prior to the adoption of the uncrc , Melton (1980) carried out research to find out children’s perspectives on children’s rights, noting that ‘until the present study, no one had even asked children what they think about their rights’ ( Melton, 1980 : 186), and without the framework of the uncrc focus, this was researched more generally, and found that age, stage of cognitive development and ses status affected children’s concepts of their rights and also their attitudes towards them.
Further to this, and perhaps as further evidence to the poor integration of the principles of the uncrc to its provisions ( Hanson and Lundy, 2017 ), it is documented that children were not directly involved to any significant extent in the drafting of the uncrc , which seems somewhat paradoxical to the principle of participation ( Lundy et al. , 2015 ) and Lundy et al. (2015) speculate upon the question of what might have been the consequences had children been involved in the drafting process. It has been been established that, when listened to, children are good reporters ( unicef , 2012 ) and that, following Melton and Limber (1992) , adults will only comprehensively identify what is important to children by being aware of their views ( Taylor et al. , 2001 ).
How do children conceive of the notion of rights? What do they think their rights should be? Are they aware of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child? Do they feel that they have a say in making decisions (Article 12)? Do they want participatory rights? Does it ultimately matter what they think?
At this time, she recognised this as a growing area, as did Taylor et al. (2001) , who nevertheless identified a scarcity of studies exploring views of children and young people ( cyp ) on their rights, and how these may differ from adults. This research took place in New Zealand with a focus on awareness and understanding of rights. The authors summarised what had been found about children’s views, and factors that may affect these, including age, socioeconomic status, cultural background, ethnicity; they also indicated that previous studies suggested significant percentages of children were not familiar with the uncrc . Similarly, Alderson (2000) found more than three quarters of pupils surveyed had not heard about the uncrc , and most of the others had heard only a small amount. This is despite Article 42 which states that children, young people and adults should know about the Convention and steps should be taken to achieve this ( United Nations, 1989 ). Taylor et al. (2001) recognised the potential role of schools as places for both pupils and staff to develop understanding of rights.
The complexity of the uncrc is identified as a barrier (for adults) to implementing a child-rights approach ( Williams, 2017 ) and is clearly not a simple document for children to access, even with an understanding that children can cope and engage with complex information (see Sargeant and Gillett-Swan, 2015 ). There do now exist child-friendly copies of the uncrc (Save the Children, n.d.-a ; The Scottish Government, 2008 ; unicef , n.d.-a ) and these appear to offer ways to make the uncrc more accessible for children, from a young age. Further development of this is a current focus for Child Rights Connect linked to the 30th Anniversary ( The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, n.d. ). There are also focused ways to implement, support and develop children’s education about their rights, such as through Unicef UK’s rights-respecting schools award, and in a variety of other publications used in and beyond the UK (for example, see Brantefors and Quennerstedt’s research synthesis, 2016 ).
The present review aims to identify and synthesise findings from a range of primary research studies to present a view upon children’s views of children’s rights, and as such includes research from different countries, ages, groups (such as those in residential care) and level of exposure to children’s rights. The importance of understanding constructions of children’s rights through children’s views and experiences at a broad, and indeed global, level and considering their different contexts, is identified by Stalford and Lundy (2020) . It is fundamental within the uncrc itself, within the guiding principles, the 3Ps and the specific articles.
2 Methodology
From a background in professional practice, the researchers adopted a critical realist approach in conceptualising and structuring this review ( Fletcher, 2017 ). This has the advantage of communicating a particular understanding of “rigour” which is readily understandable to professional practice communities (e.g. children’s services workers) and policy makers/influencers ( Gough and Thomas, 2017 ). (The limitations of this approach are considered at a later point in this paper.)
From the research question of “What are children’s views on children’s rights?”, included research needed to access the views of children (up to 18 years) about children’s rights and this needed to be at a general or “meta” level, for all or some of the focus of the paper. The authors read carefully around this aim, with recognition of the nuanced nature of identifying relevant literature. There is much research which implicitly recognises the need to access children’s views and acknowledges the importance of children’s rights, without these being the focus of the research itself. Databases searched included: assia (via ProQuest), eric (via ProQuest) and PsycInfo (via Ovid Online). These three databases were selected in order to gather research from a range of discipline areas including education, social sciences and psychology, with a focus on accessing research on children’s views. Whilst the importance of interdisciplinarity is recognised (see Stalford and Lundy, 2020 ), it was beyond the scope of the authors to extend searches further for this review. The three databases were searched using noft ( assia , eric ) and within Abstract and within Title (PsycInfo) on 2–4 January 2019 and generated a total of 1,536 returns, including duplications, using the following search terms:
– ‘child* rights’ or uncrc or ‘United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child’
– child* or young people or student* or pupil* or adolescent*
– concept* or perspective* or view* or attitude* or perceive or awareness or perception* or opinion* or thought* or value*
Each paper was scanned by title, and where necessary by abstract, and papers that did not meet the mandatory criteria of accessing children’s views about children’s rights were excluded. This left a shortlist of 116 studies, from assia (6), eric (72), PsycInfo Abstract (30) and PsycInfo Title (8). Using the same search terms, a hand search of The International Journal of Children’s Rights from the last ten years was carried out as were Google searches, and experts 1 within relevant fields were consulted, together providing another five papers at this stage.
The authors recognise there is a “grey area” around research relevance, and searched for papers with a focus upon children’s view of their rights in general, rather than any specific area of rights (e.g. participation, protection, uncrc ). Search terms did not include “voice” and “participation”, as earlier scoping showed that this understandably added a large body of research with a focus on participation as a specific aspect within the uncrc . This review aimed to access a broader view.
In order to create a final list that most reliably accessed these, several papers were discussed in detail between the authors, using the abstracts and in six cases, the full papers. A conservative approach was taken which required agreement of both authors in order for papers to be included. To meet inclusion criteria, papers were required to have a focus on rights generally and not only on specific rights, or uncrc Articles, or with a specific focus such as on “nurturance” or “self-determination”. Research was not excluded if it did not use the uncrc specifically as a framework. Papers were manually filtered to include all those published within the last ten years (2009–2019) and grey literature was not included. Whilst this exclusion decision and cut off period was not linked to any specific event or legislation, it has the benefit of accessing views from children in a contemporary context, whilst also providing a dataset of manageable proportions.
The review did not extend to search for research reported in languages other than English. Nonetheless, if the search terms had produced abstracts (and not full papers) written in English, the authors would have sought assistance to translate these.
This process led to 15 papers being identified as suitable for inclusion. These were each read in full and a further six papers were excluded as they did not meet the inclusion criteria; for example, including pupil participants who were over the age of 18 years, or utilising a structured and directive approach focused on outcomes of children’s rights training. This was due to some research focusing on knowledge of structured content pre and post teaching on children’s rights, without gathering children’s more broadly formed views about their rights, either pre- or post- rights teaching, which was the primary focus on this review.
The final inclusion criteria required papers to:
– access the views of children (up to 18 years) about children’s rights;
– have a general or “meta” rights focus, and not a narrow focus on specific rights or rights frameworks;
– be peer-reviewed research published in the last ten years;
– not use a structured and directive approach focused on outcomes of rights training/education.
Full review then progressed with the evaluation of the remaining nine papers. It is relevant to note that two of these, Kosher and Ben-Arieh (2017) and af Ursin and Haanpää (2018) , utilise the same dataset but with differing scope and analyses.
Gough’s (2007) Weight of Evidence (WofE) framework was used. Quantitative and/or qualitative review frameworks as appropriate to the specific piece of research were used critically to review the nine papers for methodological quality (WofE A). The qualitative investigation and evaluation papers utilised the frameworks used by Bond et al. (2013) in their review of the effectiveness of solution focused brief therapy (cf. also Law and Woods, 2018 ). Each paper was coded with final scores assigned up to 14 points, with criteria including execution of data collection, analysis close to data, evidence of explicit reflexivity and evidence of attention to ethical issues.
The quantitative investigations utilised a framework previously used by Flitcroft and Woods (2018) , and Woodley-Hume and Woods (2019) , and based on research appraisal guidelines ( Genaidy et al. , 2007 ; Wallace and Wray, 2011 ). These were coded with final scores assigned up to 16 points, with criteria including clear research question or hypothesis, multi-level or intergroup analyses, limitations of the research and implications of findings. Following Bond et al. (2013) , mixed methods research was coded using both frameworks. As frameworks had different totals, final scores were converted to percentages to allow for comparison, and the higher percentage was used. Following Law and Woods (2018) , these percentages were then used to categorise each paper as high quality (67–100 per cent), medium quality (34–66 per cent), or low quality (33 per cent or less).
Each paper was also rated for methodological appropriateness (WofE B). In this case, papers were assessed as high if they used qualitative methods, medium for mixed methods and low for quantitative methods. Whilst the use of qualitative methods enables gathering of data close to participant views, quantitative research also adds relevant information about these (cf. Law and Woods, 2018 ).
Each paper was also evaluated for relevance of focus (WofE C) and categorised as:
– high (central and open focus on children’s views on children’s rights in general);
– medium (partial and open focus on children’s views on children’s rights in general or central focus on children’s views on children’s rights with (de)limiting context/framework);
– low (tangential focus on children’s views on children’s rights in general).
Approximately one third (n = 3) of these papers were reviewed by both authors for the purpose of moderating evaluation, and inter-rater agreement percentages following joint moderation were calculated at an average of 97 per cent final inter-rater agreement; the remaining six papers were read in their entirety and reviewed by the first author.
Each paper was read several times by the first author and key data from each paper was mapped and summarised (see Table 1 ). A content analysis of the findings of each paper was then carried out (cf. Brantefors and Quennerstedt, 2016 ), which supported a recursive process of hybrid aggregative-configurative synthesis ( Gough et al. , 2013 ), which referenced both broad conceptualisations of children’s rights, as well as to the principles of the uncrc and its Articles. This process is summarised in Figure 1 above:
Summary of data analysis and synthesis
Citation: The International Journal of Children's Rights 29, 4 (2021) ;
The nine studies included four qualitative investigations and one qualitative evaluation, three quantitative investigations and one mixed methods investigation (see , above). Each study accessed the views of children about their rights at a general level, was peer-reviewed and published between 2009 and 2019. Three studies used a focus group, two studies used a survey (based on the same survey, the International Survey of Children’s Well-Being (ISCWeB)), four used a questionnaire (including one focused on one open-ended question as part of a larger questionnaire), one used interviews, one included a written composition and one used a participatory research method. The studies come from a range of countries; the two using the ISCWeB data utilise data from 16 countries. The other studies each focused on one country.
Whilst each study focused on children’s rights at a general level, the contexts were different. Most collected data through schools, and one collected data in residential care settings. The foci of the studies included:
psychosocial functioning;a human rights friendly ethos in school;perceptions of rights including in relation to participation and subjective well-being and across different countries, age groups and gender;experiences of rights;what human rights means to children in educational settings;contribution of school climate to views of rights;perspectives of rights;awareness and knowledge of rights and perceptions of the respect these are given across different countries, gender and social contexts;perspectives of rights when attending a Rights Respecting School.
The synthesised findings have been grouped into themes, which are presented in a thematic network (see ). Themes 4.1–4.6 are main themes, directly addressing the research question. 4.7 is a secondary theme which emerged from the process of analysis as an integral consideration alongside children’s views and the role of context.
Thematic network
Citation: The International Journal of Children's Rights 29, 4 (2021) ;
Three studies quantified children’s reported awareness of their rights. Where percentage descriptions are used, it may be useful to consider that the actual numbers of children vary greatly across the studies (see ). found 92 per cent of children in South Africa indicated they have rights. However, children also indicated that parents and teachers did not know about rights and some children also linked this lack of knowledge and awareness to their rights being violated. Children identified other children’s misunderstanding of their rights, giving examples such as children claiming their own rights when they wanted to use them as a defence/protection for when they were not upholding the rights of others. In contrast, found 52 per cent of children reported knowing about children’s rights. When looking specifically for awareness of the uncrc, 37 per cent reported knowing about this, with clear variation by country. found 45 per cent of children reported knowing what rights children had, reducing to 32 per cent reporting knowing about the crc. In England, the results were lower: found approximately one quarter of pupils surveyed knew about the uncrc (27 per cent), whilst found this to be approximately one fifth (21 per cent) of pupils in the UK as a whole. Exploring perspectives of rights with children who attended a Rights Respecting School, found children who had this rights-based experience showed an awareness and understanding of themselves as right-holders and that all human beings are rights-holders. The suggestion from the studies overall is that awareness and learning about children’s rights, through schools at least, was not consistently embedded practice; it is also unclear, in some of these studies, what level of detailed conceptualisation of rights children have.
In Yan Lam (2015), the questionnaire used the term “rights” and “crc” for some items, apparently assuming pupils would have enough rights awareness to understand these, although they also identify that, ‘Traditional schools [like one of the schools in the study] in Hong Kong tend to overemphasize students’ responsibilities and avoid mentioning their rights in order to make students obedient and compliant to school rules (Yan Lam , 2015: 196). From the quotes included in the qualitative part of this study, pupils (or teachers) do not use the vocabulary of “rights” apart from one example: ‘Many schools claim that they give students freedom, but actually the freedom they offer you does not give you a right to voice, and you can’t express your opinions about the inadequacies of school to your teachers’ (Yan Lam , 2015: 206).
For some parts of her research, intentionally moved away from the language of rights, identifying that ‘many children’ were ‘unfamiliar’ with it, and that by talking to children without using the term, children would be better able to explain their own ideas about these. In this case, children’s ideas were then linked to a human rights framework.
These results give a varied picture of children’s awareness of rights, with variation suggested by country, identifying that the mandate of Article 42 to work to ensure that the uncrc and its principles are known about by adults and children is some way from full realisation.
found 40 per cent of learners indicated the importance of rights and found children wanted to continue to support the rights of all children in the school, and they identified learning about rights as improving relationships (and behaviour), indicating the value of rights to cyp. found children identifying their right to learn their rights (and to defend them) to be the third most commonly occurring category in their study, suggesting children recognised this to be valuable, and that even without rights education they recognised they were not accessing rights or having rights promoted (in school) despite their importance. Studies in this review varied as to whether they focused explicitly on the value and importance of rights. Sometimes this is drawn out and inferred from the perceived impact of having rights fulfilled or not, and the authors recognise the link between these themes. In the studies where importance of rights and children’s attitudes towards them was a focus, cyp appeared to have a positive attitude towards rights when these were perceived as being upheld
Several studies gathered views about the impact of rights being fulfilled, or not. found that children support children’s rights more strongly when they describe their school and teachers as being open to their criticism. Arguably, this may suggest that children perceive openness to criticism as indicative of more evenly balanced power relationships, and within that context feel that their rights are more evident and tangible. (The present authors offer this particular nuanced interpretation transparently, allowing, and indeed encouraging, other readers to consider alternative possible interpretations.)
Linked to this, is that Kosher and Ben-Arieh found that children who felt their rights were more respected appeared more satisfied, leading to an identified association between children’s views on their rights, their participation, and their subjective well-being ( ). One of the findings by (2015) was that pupils’ views did not match exactly with teachers’ views, and the level of disagreement between teachers and pupils was more significant when the school environment was less supportive of human rights. This may suggest that higher levels of support for children’s rights may encourage more shared perspectives between children and adults, and further indicates the importance of accessing children’s views about this. Magelhaus’ ( ) findings identified children’s views that compromising some rights impacted (negatively) on their psychosocial functioning, resulting in internalising and externalising problems such as feelings of sadness, loneliness and emotional insecurity, and physical and verbal aggression. In this study, the cyp were children living in residential care settings and Magelhaus emphasised the importance of recognising the influence of social context for all children.
Some children’s quotes in study indicate not only that some children view being happy as a right, but also that only by fulfilling the rights they identify will children be happy. For example, one child’s response is that, ‘As children, we have the right to play comfortably and as much as we want. We can be happy only this way. All the children have the right to be happy and cheerful’ ( : 347).
In study, children identified learning about rights (in combination with accessing a rights-respecting school environment) had a positive effect on improving relationships and behaviour. Dunhill also described children who have accessed this as ‘rights holders but also upholders of rights’ ( : 24), recognising this rights education and environment as preparing children for their experiences beyond school, as global citizens.
Across differing contexts and , then, it appears that children identify the positive impact of accessing their rights, and the necessity of this, so as to be able to share their views and for their increased well-being, including in their relationships with others.
Children’s views show their awareness of others, including adults, needing to know, understand and support both their own and other children’s rights. found 59 per cent of children felt their rights were respected by adults, and found 52 per cent of children overall thought adults in their country respected their rights. The authors identified variation by country, from 35 per cent to 83 per cent, and by age, with younger children more likely to feel adults respected their rights.
found 64 per cent of children felt many people did not know and understand these and this led to a violation of their rights. Additionally, 45 per cent of children identified the need to report violations of their rights, although it was unclear whether children had tried to do so and/or what the impact of this was/was felt to be. Notably, , (2015) found there were criticisms made by pupils who felt their rights were not being realised, indicating the value they place on this access. found children recognised (other) children’s rights were not always upheld; the examples given are about children living in other parts of the world so it is unclear whether children have an understanding of, for example, experiences of children who may live nearby, in the same community, but attend a school without a focus on being rights-respecting.
Several studies explored children’s concepts of rights, and rights they identified or claimed, and found some rights occurred more frequently. found cyp in residential care to feel psychosocial functioning was affected when particular rights were compromised; private life, perceived social image, non-discrimination, and respect for themselves and their families. Within Harakat and Yel’s categories of rights, there were certain rights codes identified with more frequency than others ( ). The codes with a frequency of 40 or over came mainly from their “basic needs and developmental period needs” category and are ‘to play’ (77), ‘to be respected’ (72), ‘to be loved and cared for’ (55) and ‘to be happy and cheerful’ (40), and also, from their “legal assurances” category: ‘to learn their rights and defend these when necessary’ (66) and ‘to attend school and to get an education’ (41). Similarly, identified the rights which she described as ‘strongly claimed’ by the children in her study. She framed these within the “vocabulary of human rights” and they come mainly under the civil rights category, and included ‘not being hit’, ‘not being shouted at’, ‘being valued and treated as others’, ‘not being hurt with words’, with one strongly claimed socio-economic right, which was ‘to go to school and learn’.
Several studies classified identified rights and did so in different ways. Two ( ; ) used the uncrc within their relative ISCWeB survey data; in addition to finding out whether children knew about the uncrc, they found out whether children felt they knew “what rights children have”. explored children’s concepts of rights within the context of the uncrc and its Articles, and described “misconceptions” where children’s views did not align with this framework. wanted to access children’s views without the constraints of a framework and removed the language of “rights” entirely for some parts of the research and where the term “rights” was used, her preferred framework was of one of human (as opposed to children’s) rights, split into categories of civil rights, political rights and socio-economic rights. When qualitative data was gained without boundaries imposed by frameworks, some studies found children to identify rights not directly included within the uncrc. identified a category within her data, of “rights that go beyond hr [human rights] categorisation”. These were: “teachers who care and support”, “feel safe”, and “play and have fun”. Linked to this, fourth most frequent code (frequency of 55) was “to be loved and cared for” and “to be happy and cheerful” (40) was also frequently occurring ( ). found children also identified positive and supportive relationships as protective factors for their psychological functioning, and this appears to link to the [teachers who] “care and support” category of .
pointed to some rights identified by children as equally interpretable as responsibilities: in one example, a child linked their right to do tests and study to their aspiration of being successful in lessons and exams (which in turn they may have identified as supporting rights such as education).
Whilst some of these rights, from each of the studies, can map on to the uncrc, they do not represent all rights and some do not map directly on to this framework at all. These are rights which included emotional and relational aspects and how children feel, e.g. safe, not only being safe.
The studies in this review investigated and evaluated a range of factors which may impact on children’s views of their rights.
found younger children to report less knowledge and awareness of children’s rights, yet this group also displayed higher levels of agreement that adults respected their rights. These researchers argued this was due to the poorer understanding (of the concepts of children’s rights) of the youngest children, although no significant age differences were found relating to children’s views on their participation.
Significant gender differences were not consistently found. found minor differences, with a small number of countries identified where gender did appear to affect children’s views. , however, found female adolescents were more likely than males to support most of the children’s rights measures examined, with the exception of rights within the public/governmental context and that this was the case for both nationality groups in their sample. identified gender differences in psychological outcomes; with more males reported externalising behaviours when rights were not fulfilled.
identified cross-national differences in children’s knowledge and perceptions of their rights and their views about their participation. They linked this to the cultural model of rights; that children’s knowledge and views of their rights are constrained by their experiences of these ( , 2014), and identified that it can be argued children’s views appear to be shaped in a “specific cultural, national, and political environment” ( : 267). identified high levels of variation by country for each of the questions children answered about their rights and linked this to children’s lived experiences. Similarly, identified differences in views linked to cultural background, specifically that overall Jewish children were more supportive of children’s rights compared to Arab peers including in a personal context, and Arab adolescents more strongly supported rights within a public/governmental context.
Yan Lam (2015) found a rights-respecting school ethos was related to a greater agreement between teachers and pupils with school mission, structure for enforcing discipline, structure for the appeal of rights, structure for student participation and attitudes of teachers recognised as relevant factors; the more rights-respecting ethos also had higher mean outcomes for these areas. Similarly, identified the role of school climate, with their link between schools and teachers being open to criticism and the increase in cyp support for children’s rights. af-Ursin and Haanpää ( ) also identified school climate as a factor that impacted on children’s views of rights. One study, ( ) focused on children’s views when they attended a rights-respecting school and concluded this encouraged children to “practice, protect and promote the rights of others within their school” and that they also considered their potential “not only in the school but also in their community and globally” ( : 24).
Relational factors (“perceived social support”) were identified as important by as were “socio-cognitive variables” (perceived benefits or perceived favouritism) in affecting perceptions of cyp ( : 20). Contrastingly, found teacher-student relationships had low correlations with children’s support of children’s rights. In (2015), however, it is difficult to separate out the relational and the school climate/ethos influences; for example, some of the features of the school with the more rights-respecting ethos include gaining views of pupils which may in turn help to build a positive relationship.
In Munongi and Pillay’s study ( ), the impact of social context is also linked to the country in which the study is carried out. 92 per cent of children from South Africa showed an awareness of rights and the authors recognised the country’s “strong history of violation of human rights due to Apartheid…” and government help for “children to be more aware of their rights to promote social justice among its citizens” ( : 288). More generally, af-Ursin and Haanpää ( ) investigated a range of social factors and found those to have the greatest difference on rights outcomes (overall) were level of deprivation and home climate (and they identified school climate in this category, already classified above). They also found, with modest significance, children with immigrant backgrounds felt their rights were more respected by adults than children without immigrant backgrounds, and recognised this as needing further investigation. Similarly, identified the role of family factors, and found that the more children reported their parents listened to them and treated them fairly, the more they were satisfied with their family life and with their life overall.
This review examines children’s views on children’s rights and identifies factors affecting these. Analysis of nine papers revealed the following themes: awareness of rights, value placed on (importance of) rights, impact of having/not having rights fulfilled, realisation and respect of rights, equality of rights, identifying and categorising of rights, and factors that may affect children’s views.
The uncrc sets out to protect and promote children’s rights and yet many children who do not know about this, or about their rights more broadly. For example, in England approximately one quarter of children are aware of the uncrc ( ). Some children identify that many people generally are not children’s rights aware and identify this as a block to their rights being realised ( ). Article 42 ( ) seeks to ensure all duty bearers know about children’s rights; if many children do not know about them, or feel adults know and/or respect them, how can they be truly protected, provided and promoted?
Children appear to value, to want to know and learn their rights, and to feel positive about them; this applies both to children who have received direct rights experience and education and those who have not ( ). Furthermore, when children have accessed a rights-respecting environment they wish to continue to support the rights of all children ( ).
Children identify a negative impact on their psychosocial development when they do not fully access their rights whilst in residential care ( ), a specific focus within the uncrc (Articles 20 and 21 ). Rights-respecting environments can have positive impacts upon adult-pupil relationships (Yan Lam , 2015); furthermore, pupils can use their own views and understanding as rights-holders to consider their own rights and the rights of others ( ).
Children identify some rights, themes and principles with greater frequency than others, including concepts going beyond the legal entitlements and specific provisions of the uncrc. This is not to say that the views they share can or should be easily interpreted in the context of existing rights framework of the uncrc; however, they may provide information to help to consider provisions that support certain outcomes and how these may be operationalised. For example, children identify emotional support and resultant feelings (e.g. of safety), and also of things they do not want (e.g. to be shouted at). Notably, there have been examples of provisions to support children’s feelings of well-being such as in the UK Government “Every Child Matters” ( ), which identified children’s ‘enjoyment and achievement’ as a key outcome area.
Whilst children’s feelings are not the same as children’s rights, when children’s perception is that their rights are not realised, decreased well-being may occur. In the case of the child’s quote from (‘As children, we have the right to play comfortably and as much as we want. We can be happy only this way. All the children have the right to be happy and cheerful’), this thought-provoking interpretation is that of a child, which is explicitly what this review has investigated. By carrying out an open exploration of children’s views and concepts about their rights at a broad level, identification of what happens for children, what may be done to prevent violations of rights, and what helps to support realisation of rights can take place, supporting adult understanding of the purpose and scope of children’s rights, and the associated legal frameworks.
The uncrc details a rights framework across 54 Articles ( ) which may be difficult for younger children to internalise; a clearer focus on the four guiding uncrc “principles” may promote communication and embedding. At the same time, it is acknowledged that the four identified principles may themselves be relatively thinly conceptualised and not well integrated within the broader framework of the uncrc and propose instead a more meaningful and effective development of a set of cross-cutting standards. Nonetheless, reduced specificity within the children’s rights framework may serve to make “space” for children’s views and concepts to be more readily captured, integrated and built upon (cf. ).
This review found that national/cultural factors, social context, age, gender, relationships and school climate may impact on how children view their rights (cf. also , 2001). There were mixed findings, in relation to gender, with some identification of females being generally more supportive of children’s rights ( ), although significant gender differences were not found in all the studies; see for example, .
incorporates the findings presented following hybrid aggregative-configurative synthesis of the papers included in the present review and develops these into a progression of rights realisation. identified that research has not tended to focus on how children may develop into rights bearers, or on which processes may support children in this development. Through synthesis of research utilising children’s views, this way to consider a pathway to rights realisation sets out the need for the existence of children’s rights for children, in their lives and experiences as well as set out in the uncrc. It may be helpful to consider this as a foundation for progression of children’s rights, towards full protection, promotion and provision. This requires adults (and other children) to be able to know and support children’s rights. Alongside this, children need to be safe, and to feel safe, to share their views.
A progressions to children’s rights realisation
Citation: The International Journal of Children's Rights 29, 4 (2021) ;
Children want and need to know about their rights; this may be direct or indirect at an early stage, and dialogue and shared language facilitates this process and the following stages, as they identify as rights holders and increase in their levels of knowledge, understanding, experience and participation. This may enable and empower children to utilise and uphold their rights and then potentially to be able to communicate, shape, develop and build on children’s rights and their provision, protection and promotion. In turn, this may then support further embedding of a strong rights foundation.
As recognised by many children, in order to build the foundation needed for children’s rights to be realised, adults need to know about and uphold them. describe children’s participation as ‘meaningless’ if adults do not hear and respect their views. Programmes taking a child rights-based approach (crba) focus on developing capacities of adults and children ( ), Unicef UK has partnered with local government with the aim of embedding a crba into public services (unicef, ) and professional training and awareness campaigns established in many countries by children’s rights organisations have supported ongoing promotion of the uncrc ( ). This is relevant to support a range of professionals working with children, e.g. teachers, social workers and school nurses, in order to implement children’s rights with increased knowledge and understanding of the uncrc and also children’s views, such as of the importance of supportive adult relationships. Programmes such as the UK’s Rights Respecting Schools Award (rrsa) could increase their emphasis on reaching out to other, as yet non-awarded, schools in order to develop capacity through training, access to parents and community and outreach work with cyp. Increased emphasis at a statutory level may also be a way in which to create a catalyst for adult action and development in this area.
The increased focus on and drive towards greater participation of children in research and in practice has already been identified; further development of this is important, to adhere to the uncrc and its principles, and to continue to increase understanding of how children view children’s rights and empower children to be able to influence and progress children’s rights at a general level.
It may be helpful to identify and develop new ways to focus on rights if current ways do not align with children’s views. For example, some rights are identified by children with a greater frequency than others, and some previous research has used Maslow’s hierarchy ( ) as a way to classify rights; see for example (2015). If children do not view rights as all being equal, it is important to find out when and why this may be and what happens to children’s views about this as realisation of their rights progresses. It is also through participation and progression through the levels identified in (above) that rights identified by children which are outside the framework of the uncrc can be understood and responded to.
The negative impact of psychosocial functioning when some rights are compromised ( ) suggests that working to support the upholding of rights may play an important role in meeting needs, supporting social, emotional and mental health and acting as a protective benefit. Educational psychologists are well-placed to support schools and families through provision of information about children’s rights and supporting schools to provide, promote and protect these, and to gain the views of pupils better to understand how this may be of maximum utility in order to lead to rights realisation.
Following a rigorous and comprehensive process and framework for critical appraisal, seven of the nine included studies were rated as having high methodological quality, with the other two being medium and low respectively. As such, research in this area is generally strong, albeit there is a somewhat unco-ordinated variety of foci and contexts, and not much evidence of a programme of research relating to the focus of this review. Future research could help to embed a more consistent approach in investigating not only specific provisions of the uncrc, but also children’s views on rights more generally. If this happened with greater frequency, it may be easier to see patterns and differences whilst also acknowledging the importance of social context.
The importance of reviewing what research informs us about children’s views of children’s rights is identified, and it would be useful to develop understanding of the identified themes; for example, whether it is helpful to introduce children’s rights to children and adults who are unfamiliar with them through a focus on the four guiding principles to support awareness and understanding.
Further research may also support the development of participation, as it is through further investigating the views of children, and continuing to access views at a general level, that greater understanding will be gained. For example, how do children find it most useful and relevant to view their rights, and how may this change as progression is made towards rights realisation. This could include using a longitudinal approach, including what happens following input and exposure to a rights-respecting environment and how development may be sustained and transferred to new contexts. The model of progression identified in this review suggests that as children move towards rights realisation, they may become more able to impact positively on the rights of others and on children’s rights more generally.
In the interests of accessibility to professional practice and policy makers/influencers, the researchers adopted a critical realist approach in conceptualising and structuring this review, which privileged comprehensive empirical reports of primary research demonstrating adherence to a comprehensive range of quality criteria ( ; ). It is acknowledged that a more interpretive approach to conceptualising and structuring the review (e.g. a meta-narrative synthesis) might have led to the inclusion of other studies integrating primary and/or secondary data in conjunction with relevant rigorous argumentation ( , 2005).
Furthermore, within the terms of this review, other limitations should be considered. Though clear inclusion criteria were used, the nuanced nature of identifying papers is acknowledged. Furthermore, the search terms contain possible omissions such as using “young people” but not “young person”. Whilst the authors decided not to include terms such as “participation” and “voice” based on earlier scoping exercises, it is acknowledged that this may have resulted in some research relevant to the current review being missed, and also that the included studies mainly gathered research in school contexts.
The process of analysing and synthesising the data was primarily led by the first author and it is recognised that, as a hybrid aggregative-configurative synthesis, albeit with reference to the uncrc as a framework, this may necessarily incorporate a degree of subjectivity or “bias”. The authors have endeavoured to be clear in the presentation and discussion of findings that the interpretations presented are those of the authors, allowing and indeed welcoming other readers the opportunity to consider alternative interpretations and thereby advance debate.
This research aimed to access children’s views about their thinking about rights at a “meta” level. However, this perhaps necessarily increases the likelihood that children’s interpretations of what they were asked about was different, depending on context, experience, and the framework and methods used, which varied across the included studies. The papers selected provide a snapshot of some children’s views over the last ten years and the resulting synthesis presents a broad picture over a variety of contexts. Whilst variation by context is acknowledged, it is also relevant and useful to note the consistency and strong thread of many identified themes.
, P.-K. and Haanpää, L., “A Comparative Study on Children’s Rights Awareness in 16 Countries”, 2018 (11(5)), 1425–1443. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-017-9508-1. , and , , “ ”, Child Indicators Research ( ( )), – . .)| false , P., “School students’ views on school councils and daily life at school”, , 2000 (14), 121–134. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1099-0860.2000.tb00160.x. , , “ ”, Children & Society, ( ), – . : .)| false , D.L. and Graham, A.P., “Improving student wellbeing: having a say at school”, 2016 (27(3)), 348–366. https://doi.org/10.1080/09243453.2015.1084336. , and , , “ ”, School Effectiveness and School Improvement ( ( )), – . .)| false , C., Woods, K., Humphrey, N., Symes, W. and Green, L., “Practitioner review: The effectiveness of solution focused brief therapy with children and families: a systematic and critical evaluation of the literature from 1990–2010”, 2013 (54(7)), 707–723. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.12058. , , , , , , , and , , “ ”, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines ( ( )), – . .)| false , L. and Quennerstedt, A., “Teaching and learning children’s human rights: A research synthesis”, 2016 (3(1)), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2016.1247610. , and , , “ ”, Cogent Education ( ( )), – . .)| false , B. and Lundy, L., “Children’s rights-based childhood policy: A six-P framework”, 2019 (23(3)), 357–373. https://doi.org/10.1080/13642987.2018.1558977. , and , , “ ”, International Journal of Human Rights ( ( )), – . .)| false , “Every Child Matters: Aims and Outcomes”, 2004: . Accessed 2 October 2020. , “ ”, : . Accessed .)| false , A., “Does teaching children about human rights, encourage them to practice, protect and promote the rights of others?”, 2018 (46(1)), 16–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004279.2016.1165717. , , “ ”, Education 3-13 ( ( )), – . .)| false , A.J., “Applying critical realism in qualitative research: methodology meets method.”, 2017 (20(2)), 181–194. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2016.1144401. , , “ ”, International Journal of Social Research Methodology ( ( )), – . .)| false , D. and Woods, K., “What does research tell high school teachers about student motivation for test performance?”, 2018 (36(2)), 112–125. https://doi.org/10.1080/02643944.2018.1453858. , and , , “ ”, Pastoral Care in Education ( ( )), – . .)| false , A.M., LeMasters, G.K., Lockey, J., Succop, P., Deddens, J., Sobeih, T. and Dunning, K., “An epidemiological appraisal instrument – a tool for evaluation of epidemiological studies”, 2007 (50(6)), 920–960. https://doi.org/10.1080/00140130701237667. , , , , , , , , , , , and , , “ ”, Ergonomics ( ( )), – . .)| false , T., Robert, G., MacFarlane, F., Bate, P., Kyriakidou, O. and Peacock, R., “Storylines of research in diffusion in innovation: A meta-narrative approach to systematic review”, 2005 (61) 417–430. , , , , , , , , , and , , “ ”, Social Science and Medicine ( ) – .)| false , D., “Weight of Evidence: a framework for the appraisal of the quality and relevance of evidence”, (22(2), 213–228. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/02671520701296189 , , “ ”, Research Papers in Education 2007 ( ( ), – . : )| false , D., Oliver, S. and Thomas, J, “Learning From Research: Systematic Reviews for Informing Policy Decisions. A Quick Guide”, 2013: . , , , and , , “ ”, : .)| false , D. and Thomas, J, “Commonality and Diversity in Reviews” in D.Gough, S.Oliver and J.Thomas (eds.), (2nd edn.) (London: Sage, 2017). , and , , “ ” in
, and (eds.), An Introduction to Systematic Reviews ( ) (
London:
Sage, ).)| false , T., “The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child--And How to Make It Work”, 1990 (12(1)), 97–105. https://doi.org/10.2307/762167.
, , “ ”, Human Rights Quarterly ( ( )), – . .)| false , K. and Lundy, L., “Does Exactly What it Says on the Tin? A Critical Analysis and Alternative Conceptualisation of the So-called “General Principles” of the Convention on the Rights of the Child”, 2017 (25) 285–306. https://doi.org/10.1163/15718182-02502011. , and , , “ ”, The International Journal of Children’s Rights ( ) – . .)| false , E. and Yel, S., “Which Perceptions Do We Have Related to Our Rights as Child? Child Rights from the Perspective of Primary School Students”, 2017 (6(3)), 340–349. https://doi.org/10.5539/jel.v6n3p340. , and , , “ ”, Journal of Education and Learning ( ( )), – . .)| false , K., Granlund, M., Bornman, J. and Lygnegård, F., “Human rights of children with intellectual disabilities: Comparing self-ratings and proxy ratings”, 2015 (41(6)), 1010–1017. https://doi.org/10.1111/cch.12244. , , , , , and , , “ ”, Child: Care, Health and Development ( ( )), – . .)| false , M. and Ben-Arieh, A., “School climate and children’s views of their rights: A multi-cultural perspective among Jewish and Arab adolescents”, 2009 (31(1)), 97–103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2008.06.002. , and , , “ ”, Children and Youth Services Review ( ( )), – . .)| false , H. and Ben-Arieh, A., “What children think about their rights and their well-being: A cross-national comparison”, 2017 (87(3)), 256–273. https://doi.org/10.1037/ort0000222. , and , , “ ”, American Journal of Orthopsychiatry ( ( )), – . .)| false , C.E. and Woods, K., “The representation of the management of behavioural difficulties in ep practice”, 2018 (34(4)), 352–369. https://doi.org/10.1080/02667363.2018.1466269. , and , , “ practice”, Educational Psychology in Practice ( ( )), – . .)| false , Y. and Krappman, L., “Status of Child Rights in the International Community”, in B.K.Nastasi, S.N.Hart and S.CNaser (eds.), (Cham: Springer, 2020). , and , , “ ”, in
, and (eds.), International Handbook on Child Rights and School Psychology (
Cham:
Springer, ).)| false , L., “‘Voice’ is not enough: conceptualising Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child”, 2007 (33(6)), 927–942. https://doi.org/10.1080/01411920701657033.
, , “ ”, British Educational Research Journal ( ( )), – . .)| false , L., Welty, E., Blue Swadener, B., Blanchet Cohen, N., Smith, K. and Devine, D., “What if children had been involved in drafting the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child?”, in A.Diduck, N.Peleg and H.Reece (eds.), (Leiden, the Netherlands: Brill Nijhoff, 2015). , , , , , , , , , and , , “ ”, in
, and (eds.), Law in Society: Reflections on Children, Families, Culture and Philosophy: Essays in Honour Michael Freeman (
Leiden, the Netherlands:
Brill Nijhoff, ).)| false , E., Calheiros, M. M. and Antunes, C., “‘I always say what I think’: a rights-based approach of young people’s psychosocial functioning in residential care”, 2018 (351), 1–23. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-017-9511-6
, , , and , , “ ”, Child Indicators Research ( ), – . : )| false , A., “A theory of human motivation”, 1943 (50(4)), 370–396. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0054346. , , “ ”, Psychological Review ( ( )), – . .)| false , G.B., “Children’s concepts of their rights”, 1980 (9(3)), 186–190. https://doi.org/10.1080/15374418009532985. , , “ ”, Journal of Clinical Child Psychology ( ( )), – . .)| false , G.B. and Limber, S.P., “What Children’s Rights Mean to Children: Children’s Own Views”, in M.Freeman and P.Veerman (eds.), (Dordrect: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1992), 167–187. , and , , “ ”, in
and (eds.), The Ideologies of Children’s Rights (
Dordrect:
Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, ), – .)| false , V., “We Are People Too: Children’s and Young People’s Perspectives on Children’s Rights and Decision-Making in England”, 1999 (1(1)), 3–5. https://doi.org/10.1097/ANS.0000000000000109.
, , “ ”, Child Development ( ( )), – . .)| false , L. and Pillay, J., “A South African Perspective of Grade 9 Learners’ Experiences of Children’s Rights”, 2018 (26) 278–294. https://doi.org/10.1163/15718182-02602003. , and , , “ ”, The International Journal of Children’s Rights ( ) – . .)| false , M. and Ruck, M., “Studying Children’s Perspectives on Self-Determination and Nurturance Rights: Issues and Challenges”, , 2008 (64), 749–769. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.2008.00587.x. , and , , “ ”, Journal of Social Issues, ( ), – . .)| false , A., “Children, but not really humans? Critical reflections on the hampering effect of the ‘3 p’s’”, 2010 (18(4)), 619–635. https://doi.org/10.1163/157181810X490384. , , “ ”, The International Journal of Children’s Rights ( ( )), – . .)| false , A., “Children ’s Human Rights at School – As Formulated by Children”, 2016 (24), 657–677. https://doi.org/10.1163/15718182-02403004. , , “ ”, The International Journal of Children’s Rights ( ), – . .)| false , A. and Moody, Z., “Educational Children’s Rights Research 1989–2019: Achievements, Gaps and Future Prospects”, 2020 (28(1)), 183–208. https://doi.org/10.1163/15718182-02801003. , and , , “ ”, The International Journal of Children’s Rights ( ( )), – . .)| false , M.D., Peterson-Badali, M. and Hedwig, C.C., “Handbook of Child Well-Being: Theories, Methods and Policies in Global Perspective”, in A.Ben-Arieh, F.Casas, I.Frønes and J.E.Korbin (eds.), (New York: Springer, 2014), 1–3258. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9063-8. , , , and , , “ ”, in
, , and (eds.), Handbook of Child Well-Being: Theories, Methods and Policies in Global Perspective (
New York:
Springer, ), – . .)| false , J. and Gillett-Swan, J.K., “Empowering the disempowered through voice-inclusive practice: Children’s views on adult-centric educational provision”, 2015 (14(2)), 177–191. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474904115571800.
, and , , “ ”, European Educational Research Journal ( ( )), – . .)| false , “The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child”, n.d.-a: . Accessed 13 August 2019). , “ ”, : . Accessed 13 August 2019).)| false , “UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (uncrc): An international agreement for child rights”, n.d.-b: . Accessed 13 August 2019. , “ ): An international agreement for child rights”, : . Accessed 1 .)| false , H. and Lundy, L., “The Field of Children’s Rights: Taking Stock, Travelling Forward”, 2020 (28(1)), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1163/15718182-02801010. , and , , “ ”, The International Journal of Children’s Rights ( ( )), – . .)| false , N., Smith, A. and Nairn, K., “Rights Important to Young People: Secondary Student and Staff Perspectives”, 2001(9), 137–156. https://doi.org/10.1097/ANS.0000000000000109. , , , and , , “ ”, The International Journal of Children’s Rights ( ), – . .)| false , “Initiatives by partners to celebrate crc30”, n.d.: . Accessed 13 August 2019. , “ 30”, : . Accessed 1 .)| false , “The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child A Guide for Children and Young People”, 2008: . , “ ”, : .)| false , N., “Children’s rights: policy into practice”, 2011: . , , “ ”, : .)| false , “UN Convention on the Rights of the Child In Child Friendly Language”, n.d.-a: . , “ ”, : .)| false , “Convention on the Rights of the Child: Frequently asked questions”, 2005: . Accessed 19 May 2018. , “ ”, : . Accessed 1 .)| false , “Children’s well-being from their own point of view”, 2012: . , “ ”, : .)| false , “Child Rights Partners Putting Children’s Rights at the Hear t of Public Services”, 2014: . , “ ”, : .)| false , “The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child”, 1989: . Accessesd 13 January 2018. , “ ”, : . Accessesd .)| false , “General Comment No. 5 (2003): General measures of implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (arts. 4, 42 and 44, para. 6)”, 2003: . Accessed 6 August 2020. , “ ”, : . Accessed .)| false , M. and Wray, A., (2nd edn.) (London: SAGE, 2011). , and , , Critical Reading and Writing for Postgraduates ( ) (
London:
SAGE, ).)| false , N., “Barriers and solutions to using children’s rights approaches in policy”, 2017:.
, , “ ”, : .)| false , T. and Woods, K., “The Contribution of Assistant Psychologists in the UK”, 2019 (5(1)), 1–12. , and , , “ ”, Educational Psychology Research and Practice ( ( )), – .)| false , K. and Bond, C., “Linking regulation of practitioner school psychology and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child: The need to build a bridge”, 2014 (35(1)), 67–84. https://doi.org/10.1177/0143034313508878. , and , , “ ”, School Psychology International ( ( )), – . .)| false , D., “Felt tip pens and school councils: Children’s participation rights in four English schools”, 2001 (15(4)), 209–218. https://doi.org/10.1002/chi.651. , , “ ”, Children and Society ( ( )), – . .)| false Lo, Yan WingLeung and Wai WaYuen, “Exploring school ethos: an investigation of children’s human rights in two secondary institutions in Hong Kong”, 2015 (26(3)), 192–209. https://doi.org/10.1080/14675986.2015.1048078. , and , “ ”, Intercultural Education ( ( )), – . .)| false
Experts working within the field of children’s rights, from the areas of critical psychology, school psychology, social care and law, and identified by specialist academics working at The University of Manchester, were consulted by email and/or telephone conversation to support identification of relevant studies.
; ; ; , , P.-K. and Haanpää, L., “A Comparative Study on Children’s Rights Awareness in 16 Countries”, 2018 (11(5)), 1425–1443. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-017-9508-1. , and , , “ ”, Child Indicators Research ( ( )), – . .)| false , P., “School students’ views on school councils and daily life at school”, , 2000 (14), 121–134. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1099-0860.2000.tb00160.x. , , “ ”, Children & Society, ( ), – . : .)| false , D.L. and Graham, A.P., “Improving student wellbeing: having a say at school”, 2016 (27(3)), 348–366. https://doi.org/10.1080/09243453.2015.1084336. , and , , “ ”, School Effectiveness and School Improvement ( ( )), – . .)| false , C., Woods, K., Humphrey, N., Symes, W. and Green, L., “Practitioner review: The effectiveness of solution focused brief therapy with children and families: a systematic and critical evaluation of the literature from 1990–2010”, 2013 (54(7)), 707–723. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.12058. , , , , , , , and , , “ ”, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines ( ( )), – . .)| false , L. and Quennerstedt, A., “Teaching and learning children’s human rights: A research synthesis”, 2016 (3(1)), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2016.1247610. , and , , “ ”, Cogent Education ( ( )), – . .)| false , B. and Lundy, L., “Children’s rights-based childhood policy: A six-P framework”, 2019 (23(3)), 357–373. https://doi.org/10.1080/13642987.2018.1558977. , and , , “ ”, International Journal of Human Rights ( ( )), – . .)| false , “Every Child Matters: Aims and Outcomes”, 2004: . Accessed 2 October 2020. , “ ”, : . Accessed .)| false , A., “Does teaching children about human rights, encourage them to practice, protect and promote the rights of others?”, 2018 (46(1)), 16–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004279.2016.1165717. , , “ ”, Education 3-13 ( ( )), – . .)| false , A.J., “Applying critical realism in qualitative research: methodology meets method.”, 2017 (20(2)), 181–194. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2016.1144401. , , “ ”, International Journal of Social Research Methodology ( ( )), – . .)| false , D. and Woods, K., “What does research tell high school teachers about student motivation for test performance?”, 2018 (36(2)), 112–125. https://doi.org/10.1080/02643944.2018.1453858. , and , , “ ”, Pastoral Care in Education ( ( )), – . .)| false , A.M., LeMasters, G.K., Lockey, J., Succop, P., Deddens, J., Sobeih, T. and Dunning, K., “An epidemiological appraisal instrument – a tool for evaluation of epidemiological studies”, 2007 (50(6)), 920–960. https://doi.org/10.1080/00140130701237667. , , , , , , , , , , , and , , “ ”, Ergonomics ( ( )), – . .)| false , T., Robert, G., MacFarlane, F., Bate, P., Kyriakidou, O. and Peacock, R., “Storylines of research in diffusion in innovation: A meta-narrative approach to systematic review”, 2005 (61) 417–430. , , , , , , , , , and , , “ ”, Social Science and Medicine ( ) – .)| false , D., “Weight of Evidence: a framework for the appraisal of the quality and relevance of evidence”, (22(2), 213–228. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/02671520701296189 , , “ ”, Research Papers in Education 2007 ( ( ), – . : )| false , D., Oliver, S. and Thomas, J, “Learning From Research: Systematic Reviews for Informing Policy Decisions. A Quick Guide”, 2013: . , , , and , , “ ”, : .)| false , D. and Thomas, J, “Commonality and Diversity in Reviews” in D.Gough, S.Oliver and J.Thomas (eds.), (2nd edn.) (London: Sage, 2017). , and , , “ ” in
, and (eds.), An Introduction to Systematic Reviews ( ) (
London:
Sage, ).)| false , T., “The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child--And How to Make It Work”, 1990 (12(1)), 97–105. https://doi.org/10.2307/762167.
, , “ ”, Human Rights Quarterly ( ( )), – . .)| false , K. and Lundy, L., “Does Exactly What it Says on the Tin? A Critical Analysis and Alternative Conceptualisation of the So-called “General Principles” of the Convention on the Rights of the Child”, 2017 (25) 285–306. https://doi.org/10.1163/15718182-02502011. , and , , “ ”, The International Journal of Children’s Rights ( ) – . .)| false , E. and Yel, S., “Which Perceptions Do We Have Related to Our Rights as Child? Child Rights from the Perspective of Primary School Students”, 2017 (6(3)), 340–349. https://doi.org/10.5539/jel.v6n3p340. , and , , “ ”, Journal of Education and Learning ( ( )), – . .)| false , K., Granlund, M., Bornman, J. and Lygnegård, F., “Human rights of children with intellectual disabilities: Comparing self-ratings and proxy ratings”, 2015 (41(6)), 1010–1017. https://doi.org/10.1111/cch.12244. , , , , , and , , “ ”, Child: Care, Health and Development ( ( )), – . .)| false , M. and Ben-Arieh, A., “School climate and children’s views of their rights: A multi-cultural perspective among Jewish and Arab adolescents”, 2009 (31(1)), 97–103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2008.06.002. , and , , “ ”, Children and Youth Services Review ( ( )), – . .)| false , H. and Ben-Arieh, A., “What children think about their rights and their well-being: A cross-national comparison”, 2017 (87(3)), 256–273. https://doi.org/10.1037/ort0000222. , and , , “ ”, American Journal of Orthopsychiatry ( ( )), – . .)| false , C.E. and Woods, K., “The representation of the management of behavioural difficulties in ep practice”, 2018 (34(4)), 352–369. https://doi.org/10.1080/02667363.2018.1466269. , and , , “ practice”, Educational Psychology in Practice ( ( )), – . .)| false , Y. and Krappman, L., “Status of Child Rights in the International Community”, in B.K.Nastasi, S.N.Hart and S.CNaser (eds.), (Cham: Springer, 2020). , and , , “ ”, in
, and (eds.), International Handbook on Child Rights and School Psychology (
Cham:
Springer, ).)| false , L., “‘Voice’ is not enough: conceptualising Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child”, 2007 (33(6)), 927–942. https://doi.org/10.1080/01411920701657033.
, , “ ”, British Educational Research Journal ( ( )), – . .)| false , L., Welty, E., Blue Swadener, B., Blanchet Cohen, N., Smith, K. and Devine, D., “What if children had been involved in drafting the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child?”, in A.Diduck, N.Peleg and H.Reece (eds.), (Leiden, the Netherlands: Brill Nijhoff, 2015). , , , , , , , , , and , , “ ”, in
, and (eds.), Law in Society: Reflections on Children, Families, Culture and Philosophy: Essays in Honour Michael Freeman (
Leiden, the Netherlands:
Brill Nijhoff, ).)| false , E., Calheiros, M. M. and Antunes, C., “‘I always say what I think’: a rights-based approach of young people’s psychosocial functioning in residential care”, 2018 (351), 1–23. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-017-9511-6
, , , and , , “ ”, Child Indicators Research ( ), – . : )| false , A., “A theory of human motivation”, 1943 (50(4)), 370–396. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0054346. , , “ ”, Psychological Review ( ( )), – . .)| false , G.B., “Children’s concepts of their rights”, 1980 (9(3)), 186–190. https://doi.org/10.1080/15374418009532985. , , “ ”, Journal of Clinical Child Psychology ( ( )), – . .)| false , G.B. and Limber, S.P., “What Children’s Rights Mean to Children: Children’s Own Views”, in M.Freeman and P.Veerman (eds.), (Dordrect: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1992), 167–187. , and , , “ ”, in
and (eds.), The Ideologies of Children’s Rights (
Dordrect:
Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, ), – .)| false , V., “We Are People Too: Children’s and Young People’s Perspectives on Children’s Rights and Decision-Making in England”, 1999 (1(1)), 3–5. https://doi.org/10.1097/ANS.0000000000000109.
, , “ ”, Child Development ( ( )), – . .)| false , L. and Pillay, J., “A South African Perspective of Grade 9 Learners’ Experiences of Children’s Rights”, 2018 (26) 278–294. https://doi.org/10.1163/15718182-02602003. , and , , “ ”, The International Journal of Children’s Rights ( ) – . .)| false , M. and Ruck, M., “Studying Children’s Perspectives on Self-Determination and Nurturance Rights: Issues and Challenges”, , 2008 (64), 749–769. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.2008.00587.x. , and , , “ ”, Journal of Social Issues, ( ), – . .)| false , A., “Children, but not really humans? Critical reflections on the hampering effect of the ‘3 p’s’”, 2010 (18(4)), 619–635. https://doi.org/10.1163/157181810X490384. , , “ ”, The International Journal of Children’s Rights ( ( )), – . .)| false , A., “Children ’s Human Rights at School – As Formulated by Children”, 2016 (24), 657–677. https://doi.org/10.1163/15718182-02403004. , , “ ”, The International Journal of Children’s Rights ( ), – . .)| false , A. and Moody, Z., “Educational Children’s Rights Research 1989–2019: Achievements, Gaps and Future Prospects”, 2020 (28(1)), 183–208. https://doi.org/10.1163/15718182-02801003. , and , , “ ”, The International Journal of Children’s Rights ( ( )), – . .)| false , M.D., Peterson-Badali, M. and Hedwig, C.C., “Handbook of Child Well-Being: Theories, Methods and Policies in Global Perspective”, in A.Ben-Arieh, F.Casas, I.Frønes and J.E.Korbin (eds.), (New York: Springer, 2014), 1–3258. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9063-8. , , , and , , “ ”, in
, , and (eds.), Handbook of Child Well-Being: Theories, Methods and Policies in Global Perspective (
New York:
Springer, ), – . .)| false , J. and Gillett-Swan, J.K., “Empowering the disempowered through voice-inclusive practice: Children’s views on adult-centric educational provision”, 2015 (14(2)), 177–191. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474904115571800.
, and , , “ ”, European Educational Research Journal ( ( )), – . .)| false , “The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child”, n.d.-a: . Accessed 13 August 2019). , “ ”, : . Accessed 13 August 2019).)| false , “UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (uncrc): An international agreement for child rights”, n.d.-b: . Accessed 13 August 2019. , “ ): An international agreement for child rights”, : . Accessed 1 .)| false , H. and Lundy, L., “The Field of Children’s Rights: Taking Stock, Travelling Forward”, 2020 (28(1)), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1163/15718182-02801010. , and , , “ ”, The International Journal of Children’s Rights ( ( )), – . .)| false , N., Smith, A. and Nairn, K., “Rights Important to Young People: Secondary Student and Staff Perspectives”, 2001(9), 137–156. https://doi.org/10.1097/ANS.0000000000000109. , , , and , , “ ”, The International Journal of Children’s Rights ( ), – . .)| false , “Initiatives by partners to celebrate crc30”, n.d.: . Accessed 13 August 2019. , “ 30”, : . Accessed 1 .)| false , “The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child A Guide for Children and Young People”, 2008: . , “ ”, : .)| false , N., “Children’s rights: policy into practice”, 2011: . , , “ ”, : .)| false , “UN Convention on the Rights of the Child In Child Friendly Language”, n.d.-a: . , “ ”, : .)| false , “Convention on the Rights of the Child: Frequently asked questions”, 2005: . Accessed 19 May 2018. , “ ”, : . Accessed 1 .)| false , “Children’s well-being from their own point of view”, 2012: . , “ ”, : .)| false , “Child Rights Partners Putting Children’s Rights at the Hear t of Public Services”, 2014: . , “ ”, : .)| false , “The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child”, 1989: . Accessesd 13 January 2018. , “ ”, : . Accessesd .)| false , “General Comment No. 5 (2003): General measures of implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (arts. 4, 42 and 44, para. 6)”, 2003: . Accessed 6 August 2020. , “ ”, : . Accessed .)| false , M. and Wray, A., (2nd edn.) (London: SAGE, 2011). , and , , Critical Reading and Writing for Postgraduates ( ) (
London:
SAGE, ).)| false , N., “Barriers and solutions to using children’s rights approaches in policy”, 2017:.
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Summary of data analysis and synthesis
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Thematic network
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A progressions to children’s rights realisation
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Summary of data analysis and synthesis
Citation: The International Journal of Children's Rights 29, 4 (2021) ;
The nine studies included four qualitative investigations and one qualitative evaluation, three quantitative investigations and one mixed methods investigation (see , above). Each study accessed the views of children about their rights at a general level, was peer-reviewed and published between 2009 and 2019. Three studies used a focus group, two studies used a survey (based on the same survey, the International Survey of Children’s Well-Being (ISCWeB)), four used a questionnaire (including one focused on one open-ended question as part of a larger questionnaire), one used interviews, one included a written composition and one used a participatory research method. The studies come from a range of countries; the two using the ISCWeB data utilise data from 16 countries. The other studies each focused on one country.
Whilst each study focused on children’s rights at a general level, the contexts were different. Most collected data through schools, and one collected data in residential care settings. The foci of the studies included:
psychosocial functioning;a human rights friendly ethos in school;perceptions of rights including in relation to participation and subjective well-being and across different countries, age groups and gender;experiences of rights;what human rights means to children in educational settings;contribution of school climate to views of rights;perspectives of rights;awareness and knowledge of rights and perceptions of the respect these are given across different countries, gender and social contexts;perspectives of rights when attending a Rights Respecting School.
The synthesised findings have been grouped into themes, which are presented in a thematic network (see ). Themes 4.1–4.6 are main themes, directly addressing the research question. 4.7 is a secondary theme which emerged from the process of analysis as an integral consideration alongside children’s views and the role of context.
Thematic network
Citation: The International Journal of Children's Rights 29, 4 (2021) ;
Three studies quantified children’s reported awareness of their rights. Where percentage descriptions are used, it may be useful to consider that the actual numbers of children vary greatly across the studies (see ). found 92 per cent of children in South Africa indicated they have rights. However, children also indicated that parents and teachers did not know about rights and some children also linked this lack of knowledge and awareness to their rights being violated. Children identified other children’s misunderstanding of their rights, giving examples such as children claiming their own rights when they wanted to use them as a defence/protection for when they were not upholding the rights of others. In contrast, found 52 per cent of children reported knowing about children’s rights. When looking specifically for awareness of the uncrc, 37 per cent reported knowing about this, with clear variation by country. found 45 per cent of children reported knowing what rights children had, reducing to 32 per cent reporting knowing about the crc. In England, the results were lower: found approximately one quarter of pupils surveyed knew about the uncrc (27 per cent), whilst found this to be approximately one fifth (21 per cent) of pupils in the UK as a whole. Exploring perspectives of rights with children who attended a Rights Respecting School, found children who had this rights-based experience showed an awareness and understanding of themselves as right-holders and that all human beings are rights-holders. The suggestion from the studies overall is that awareness and learning about children’s rights, through schools at least, was not consistently embedded practice; it is also unclear, in some of these studies, what level of detailed conceptualisation of rights children have.
In Yan Lam (2015), the questionnaire used the term “rights” and “crc” for some items, apparently assuming pupils would have enough rights awareness to understand these, although they also identify that, ‘Traditional schools [like one of the schools in the study] in Hong Kong tend to overemphasize students’ responsibilities and avoid mentioning their rights in order to make students obedient and compliant to school rules (Yan Lam , 2015: 196). From the quotes included in the qualitative part of this study, pupils (or teachers) do not use the vocabulary of “rights” apart from one example: ‘Many schools claim that they give students freedom, but actually the freedom they offer you does not give you a right to voice, and you can’t express your opinions about the inadequacies of school to your teachers’ (Yan Lam , 2015: 206).
For some parts of her research, intentionally moved away from the language of rights, identifying that ‘many children’ were ‘unfamiliar’ with it, and that by talking to children without using the term, children would be better able to explain their own ideas about these. In this case, children’s ideas were then linked to a human rights framework.
These results give a varied picture of children’s awareness of rights, with variation suggested by country, identifying that the mandate of Article 42 to work to ensure that the uncrc and its principles are known about by adults and children is some way from full realisation.
found 40 per cent of learners indicated the importance of rights and found children wanted to continue to support the rights of all children in the school, and they identified learning about rights as improving relationships (and behaviour), indicating the value of rights to cyp. found children identifying their right to learn their rights (and to defend them) to be the third most commonly occurring category in their study, suggesting children recognised this to be valuable, and that even without rights education they recognised they were not accessing rights or having rights promoted (in school) despite their importance. Studies in this review varied as to whether they focused explicitly on the value and importance of rights. Sometimes this is drawn out and inferred from the perceived impact of having rights fulfilled or not, and the authors recognise the link between these themes. In the studies where importance of rights and children’s attitudes towards them was a focus, cyp appeared to have a positive attitude towards rights when these were perceived as being upheld
Several studies gathered views about the impact of rights being fulfilled, or not. found that children support children’s rights more strongly when they describe their school and teachers as being open to their criticism. Arguably, this may suggest that children perceive openness to criticism as indicative of more evenly balanced power relationships, and within that context feel that their rights are more evident and tangible. (The present authors offer this particular nuanced interpretation transparently, allowing, and indeed encouraging, other readers to consider alternative possible interpretations.)
Linked to this, is that Kosher and Ben-Arieh found that children who felt their rights were more respected appeared more satisfied, leading to an identified association between children’s views on their rights, their participation, and their subjective well-being ( ). One of the findings by (2015) was that pupils’ views did not match exactly with teachers’ views, and the level of disagreement between teachers and pupils was more significant when the school environment was less supportive of human rights. This may suggest that higher levels of support for children’s rights may encourage more shared perspectives between children and adults, and further indicates the importance of accessing children’s views about this. Magelhaus’ ( ) findings identified children’s views that compromising some rights impacted (negatively) on their psychosocial functioning, resulting in internalising and externalising problems such as feelings of sadness, loneliness and emotional insecurity, and physical and verbal aggression. In this study, the cyp were children living in residential care settings and Magelhaus emphasised the importance of recognising the influence of social context for all children.
Some children’s quotes in study indicate not only that some children view being happy as a right, but also that only by fulfilling the rights they identify will children be happy. For example, one child’s response is that, ‘As children, we have the right to play comfortably and as much as we want. We can be happy only this way. All the children have the right to be happy and cheerful’ ( : 347).
In study, children identified learning about rights (in combination with accessing a rights-respecting school environment) had a positive effect on improving relationships and behaviour. Dunhill also described children who have accessed this as ‘rights holders but also upholders of rights’ ( : 24), recognising this rights education and environment as preparing children for their experiences beyond school, as global citizens.
Across differing contexts and , then, it appears that children identify the positive impact of accessing their rights, and the necessity of this, so as to be able to share their views and for their increased well-being, including in their relationships with others.
Children’s views show their awareness of others, including adults, needing to know, understand and support both their own and other children’s rights. found 59 per cent of children felt their rights were respected by adults, and found 52 per cent of children overall thought adults in their country respected their rights. The authors identified variation by country, from 35 per cent to 83 per cent, and by age, with younger children more likely to feel adults respected their rights.
found 64 per cent of children felt many people did not know and understand these and this led to a violation of their rights. Additionally, 45 per cent of children identified the need to report violations of their rights, although it was unclear whether children had tried to do so and/or what the impact of this was/was felt to be. Notably, , (2015) found there were criticisms made by pupils who felt their rights were not being realised, indicating the value they place on this access. found children recognised (other) children’s rights were not always upheld; the examples given are about children living in other parts of the world so it is unclear whether children have an understanding of, for example, experiences of children who may live nearby, in the same community, but attend a school without a focus on being rights-respecting.
Several studies explored children’s concepts of rights, and rights they identified or claimed, and found some rights occurred more frequently. found cyp in residential care to feel psychosocial functioning was affected when particular rights were compromised; private life, perceived social image, non-discrimination, and respect for themselves and their families. Within Harakat and Yel’s categories of rights, there were certain rights codes identified with more frequency than others ( ). The codes with a frequency of 40 or over came mainly from their “basic needs and developmental period needs” category and are ‘to play’ (77), ‘to be respected’ (72), ‘to be loved and cared for’ (55) and ‘to be happy and cheerful’ (40), and also, from their “legal assurances” category: ‘to learn their rights and defend these when necessary’ (66) and ‘to attend school and to get an education’ (41). Similarly, identified the rights which she described as ‘strongly claimed’ by the children in her study. She framed these within the “vocabulary of human rights” and they come mainly under the civil rights category, and included ‘not being hit’, ‘not being shouted at’, ‘being valued and treated as others’, ‘not being hurt with words’, with one strongly claimed socio-economic right, which was ‘to go to school and learn’.
Several studies classified identified rights and did so in different ways. Two ( ; ) used the uncrc within their relative ISCWeB survey data; in addition to finding out whether children knew about the uncrc, they found out whether children felt they knew “what rights children have”. explored children’s concepts of rights within the context of the uncrc and its Articles, and described “misconceptions” where children’s views did not align with this framework. wanted to access children’s views without the constraints of a framework and removed the language of “rights” entirely for some parts of the research and where the term “rights” was used, her preferred framework was of one of human (as opposed to children’s) rights, split into categories of civil rights, political rights and socio-economic rights. When qualitative data was gained without boundaries imposed by frameworks, some studies found children to identify rights not directly included within the uncrc. identified a category within her data, of “rights that go beyond hr [human rights] categorisation”. These were: “teachers who care and support”, “feel safe”, and “play and have fun”. Linked to this, fourth most frequent code (frequency of 55) was “to be loved and cared for” and “to be happy and cheerful” (40) was also frequently occurring ( ). found children also identified positive and supportive relationships as protective factors for their psychological functioning, and this appears to link to the [teachers who] “care and support” category of .
pointed to some rights identified by children as equally interpretable as responsibilities: in one example, a child linked their right to do tests and study to their aspiration of being successful in lessons and exams (which in turn they may have identified as supporting rights such as education).
Whilst some of these rights, from each of the studies, can map on to the uncrc, they do not represent all rights and some do not map directly on to this framework at all. These are rights which included emotional and relational aspects and how children feel, e.g. safe, not only being safe.
The studies in this review investigated and evaluated a range of factors which may impact on children’s views of their rights.
found younger children to report less knowledge and awareness of children’s rights, yet this group also displayed higher levels of agreement that adults respected their rights. These researchers argued this was due to the poorer understanding (of the concepts of children’s rights) of the youngest children, although no significant age differences were found relating to children’s views on their participation.
Significant gender differences were not consistently found. found minor differences, with a small number of countries identified where gender did appear to affect children’s views. , however, found female adolescents were more likely than males to support most of the children’s rights measures examined, with the exception of rights within the public/governmental context and that this was the case for both nationality groups in their sample. identified gender differences in psychological outcomes; with more males reported externalising behaviours when rights were not fulfilled.
identified cross-national differences in children’s knowledge and perceptions of their rights and their views about their participation. They linked this to the cultural model of rights; that children’s knowledge and views of their rights are constrained by their experiences of these ( , 2014), and identified that it can be argued children’s views appear to be shaped in a “specific cultural, national, and political environment” ( : 267). identified high levels of variation by country for each of the questions children answered about their rights and linked this to children’s lived experiences. Similarly, identified differences in views linked to cultural background, specifically that overall Jewish children were more supportive of children’s rights compared to Arab peers including in a personal context, and Arab adolescents more strongly supported rights within a public/governmental context.
Yan Lam (2015) found a rights-respecting school ethos was related to a greater agreement between teachers and pupils with school mission, structure for enforcing discipline, structure for the appeal of rights, structure for student participation and attitudes of teachers recognised as relevant factors; the more rights-respecting ethos also had higher mean outcomes for these areas. Similarly, identified the role of school climate, with their link between schools and teachers being open to criticism and the increase in cyp support for children’s rights. af-Ursin and Haanpää ( ) also identified school climate as a factor that impacted on children’s views of rights. One study, ( ) focused on children’s views when they attended a rights-respecting school and concluded this encouraged children to “practice, protect and promote the rights of others within their school” and that they also considered their potential “not only in the school but also in their community and globally” ( : 24).
Relational factors (“perceived social support”) were identified as important by as were “socio-cognitive variables” (perceived benefits or perceived favouritism) in affecting perceptions of cyp ( : 20). Contrastingly, found teacher-student relationships had low correlations with children’s support of children’s rights. In (2015), however, it is difficult to separate out the relational and the school climate/ethos influences; for example, some of the features of the school with the more rights-respecting ethos include gaining views of pupils which may in turn help to build a positive relationship.
In Munongi and Pillay’s study ( ), the impact of social context is also linked to the country in which the study is carried out. 92 per cent of children from South Africa showed an awareness of rights and the authors recognised the country’s “strong history of violation of human rights due to Apartheid…” and government help for “children to be more aware of their rights to promote social justice among its citizens” ( : 288). More generally, af-Ursin and Haanpää ( ) investigated a range of social factors and found those to have the greatest difference on rights outcomes (overall) were level of deprivation and home climate (and they identified school climate in this category, already classified above). They also found, with modest significance, children with immigrant backgrounds felt their rights were more respected by adults than children without immigrant backgrounds, and recognised this as needing further investigation. Similarly, identified the role of family factors, and found that the more children reported their parents listened to them and treated them fairly, the more they were satisfied with their family life and with their life overall.
This review examines children’s views on children’s rights and identifies factors affecting these. Analysis of nine papers revealed the following themes: awareness of rights, value placed on (importance of) rights, impact of having/not having rights fulfilled, realisation and respect of rights, equality of rights, identifying and categorising of rights, and factors that may affect children’s views.
The uncrc sets out to protect and promote children’s rights and yet many children who do not know about this, or about their rights more broadly. For example, in England approximately one quarter of children are aware of the uncrc ( ). Some children identify that many people generally are not children’s rights aware and identify this as a block to their rights being realised ( ). Article 42 ( ) seeks to ensure all duty bearers know about children’s rights; if many children do not know about them, or feel adults know and/or respect them, how can they be truly protected, provided and promoted?
Children appear to value, to want to know and learn their rights, and to feel positive about them; this applies both to children who have received direct rights experience and education and those who have not ( ). Furthermore, when children have accessed a rights-respecting environment they wish to continue to support the rights of all children ( ).
Children identify a negative impact on their psychosocial development when they do not fully access their rights whilst in residential care ( ), a specific focus within the uncrc (Articles 20 and 21 ). Rights-respecting environments can have positive impacts upon adult-pupil relationships (Yan Lam , 2015); furthermore, pupils can use their own views and understanding as rights-holders to consider their own rights and the rights of others ( ).
Children identify some rights, themes and principles with greater frequency than others, including concepts going beyond the legal entitlements and specific provisions of the uncrc. This is not to say that the views they share can or should be easily interpreted in the context of existing rights framework of the uncrc; however, they may provide information to help to consider provisions that support certain outcomes and how these may be operationalised. For example, children identify emotional support and resultant feelings (e.g. of safety), and also of things they do not want (e.g. to be shouted at). Notably, there have been examples of provisions to support children’s feelings of well-being such as in the UK Government “Every Child Matters” ( ), which identified children’s ‘enjoyment and achievement’ as a key outcome area.
Whilst children’s feelings are not the same as children’s rights, when children’s perception is that their rights are not realised, decreased well-being may occur. In the case of the child’s quote from (‘As children, we have the right to play comfortably and as much as we want. We can be happy only this way. All the children have the right to be happy and cheerful’), this thought-provoking interpretation is that of a child, which is explicitly what this review has investigated. By carrying out an open exploration of children’s views and concepts about their rights at a broad level, identification of what happens for children, what may be done to prevent violations of rights, and what helps to support realisation of rights can take place, supporting adult understanding of the purpose and scope of children’s rights, and the associated legal frameworks.
The uncrc details a rights framework across 54 Articles ( ) which may be difficult for younger children to internalise; a clearer focus on the four guiding uncrc “principles” may promote communication and embedding. At the same time, it is acknowledged that the four identified principles may themselves be relatively thinly conceptualised and not well integrated within the broader framework of the uncrc and propose instead a more meaningful and effective development of a set of cross-cutting standards. Nonetheless, reduced specificity within the children’s rights framework may serve to make “space” for children’s views and concepts to be more readily captured, integrated and built upon (cf. ).
This review found that national/cultural factors, social context, age, gender, relationships and school climate may impact on how children view their rights (cf. also , 2001). There were mixed findings, in relation to gender, with some identification of females being generally more supportive of children’s rights ( ), although significant gender differences were not found in all the studies; see for example, .
incorporates the findings presented following hybrid aggregative-configurative synthesis of the papers included in the present review and develops these into a progression of rights realisation. identified that research has not tended to focus on how children may develop into rights bearers, or on which processes may support children in this development. Through synthesis of research utilising children’s views, this way to consider a pathway to rights realisation sets out the need for the existence of children’s rights for children, in their lives and experiences as well as set out in the uncrc. It may be helpful to consider this as a foundation for progression of children’s rights, towards full protection, promotion and provision. This requires adults (and other children) to be able to know and support children’s rights. Alongside this, children need to be safe, and to feel safe, to share their views.
A progressions to children’s rights realisation
Citation: The International Journal of Children's Rights 29, 4 (2021) ;
Children want and need to know about their rights; this may be direct or indirect at an early stage, and dialogue and shared language facilitates this process and the following stages, as they identify as rights holders and increase in their levels of knowledge, understanding, experience and participation. This may enable and empower children to utilise and uphold their rights and then potentially to be able to communicate, shape, develop and build on children’s rights and their provision, protection and promotion. In turn, this may then support further embedding of a strong rights foundation.
As recognised by many children, in order to build the foundation needed for children’s rights to be realised, adults need to know about and uphold them. describe children’s participation as ‘meaningless’ if adults do not hear and respect their views. Programmes taking a child rights-based approach (crba) focus on developing capacities of adults and children ( ), Unicef UK has partnered with local government with the aim of embedding a crba into public services (unicef, ) and professional training and awareness campaigns established in many countries by children’s rights organisations have supported ongoing promotion of the uncrc ( ). This is relevant to support a range of professionals working with children, e.g. teachers, social workers and school nurses, in order to implement children’s rights with increased knowledge and understanding of the uncrc and also children’s views, such as of the importance of supportive adult relationships. Programmes such as the UK’s Rights Respecting Schools Award (rrsa) could increase their emphasis on reaching out to other, as yet non-awarded, schools in order to develop capacity through training, access to parents and community and outreach work with cyp. Increased emphasis at a statutory level may also be a way in which to create a catalyst for adult action and development in this area.
The increased focus on and drive towards greater participation of children in research and in practice has already been identified; further development of this is important, to adhere to the uncrc and its principles, and to continue to increase understanding of how children view children’s rights and empower children to be able to influence and progress children’s rights at a general level.
It may be helpful to identify and develop new ways to focus on rights if current ways do not align with children’s views. For example, some rights are identified by children with a greater frequency than others, and some previous research has used Maslow’s hierarchy ( ) as a way to classify rights; see for example (2015). If children do not view rights as all being equal, it is important to find out when and why this may be and what happens to children’s views about this as realisation of their rights progresses. It is also through participation and progression through the levels identified in (above) that rights identified by children which are outside the framework of the uncrc can be understood and responded to.
The negative impact of psychosocial functioning when some rights are compromised ( ) suggests that working to support the upholding of rights may play an important role in meeting needs, supporting social, emotional and mental health and acting as a protective benefit. Educational psychologists are well-placed to support schools and families through provision of information about children’s rights and supporting schools to provide, promote and protect these, and to gain the views of pupils better to understand how this may be of maximum utility in order to lead to rights realisation.
Following a rigorous and comprehensive process and framework for critical appraisal, seven of the nine included studies were rated as having high methodological quality, with the other two being medium and low respectively. As such, research in this area is generally strong, albeit there is a somewhat unco-ordinated variety of foci and contexts, and not much evidence of a programme of research relating to the focus of this review. Future research could help to embed a more consistent approach in investigating not only specific provisions of the uncrc, but also children’s views on rights more generally. If this happened with greater frequency, it may be easier to see patterns and differences whilst also acknowledging the importance of social context.
The importance of reviewing what research informs us about children’s views of children’s rights is identified, and it would be useful to develop understanding of the identified themes; for example, whether it is helpful to introduce children’s rights to children and adults who are unfamiliar with them through a focus on the four guiding principles to support awareness and understanding.
Further research may also support the development of participation, as it is through further investigating the views of children, and continuing to access views at a general level, that greater understanding will be gained. For example, how do children find it most useful and relevant to view their rights, and how may this change as progression is made towards rights realisation. This could include using a longitudinal approach, including what happens following input and exposure to a rights-respecting environment and how development may be sustained and transferred to new contexts. The model of progression identified in this review suggests that as children move towards rights realisation, they may become more able to impact positively on the rights of others and on children’s rights more generally.
In the interests of accessibility to professional practice and policy makers/influencers, the researchers adopted a critical realist approach in conceptualising and structuring this review, which privileged comprehensive empirical reports of primary research demonstrating adherence to a comprehensive range of quality criteria ( ; ). It is acknowledged that a more interpretive approach to conceptualising and structuring the review (e.g. a meta-narrative synthesis) might have led to the inclusion of other studies integrating primary and/or secondary data in conjunction with relevant rigorous argumentation ( , 2005).
Furthermore, within the terms of this review, other limitations should be considered. Though clear inclusion criteria were used, the nuanced nature of identifying papers is acknowledged. Furthermore, the search terms contain possible omissions such as using “young people” but not “young person”. Whilst the authors decided not to include terms such as “participation” and “voice” based on earlier scoping exercises, it is acknowledged that this may have resulted in some research relevant to the current review being missed, and also that the included studies mainly gathered research in school contexts.
The process of analysing and synthesising the data was primarily led by the first author and it is recognised that, as a hybrid aggregative-configurative synthesis, albeit with reference to the uncrc as a framework, this may necessarily incorporate a degree of subjectivity or “bias”. The authors have endeavoured to be clear in the presentation and discussion of findings that the interpretations presented are those of the authors, allowing and indeed welcoming other readers the opportunity to consider alternative interpretations and thereby advance debate.
This research aimed to access children’s views about their thinking about rights at a “meta” level. However, this perhaps necessarily increases the likelihood that children’s interpretations of what they were asked about was different, depending on context, experience, and the framework and methods used, which varied across the included studies. The papers selected provide a snapshot of some children’s views over the last ten years and the resulting synthesis presents a broad picture over a variety of contexts. Whilst variation by context is acknowledged, it is also relevant and useful to note the consistency and strong thread of many identified themes.
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, , “ ”, : .)| false , T. and Woods, K., “The Contribution of Assistant Psychologists in the UK”, 2019 (5(1)), 1–12. , and , , “ ”, Educational Psychology Research and Practice ( ( )), – .)| false , K. and Bond, C., “Linking regulation of practitioner school psychology and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child: The need to build a bridge”, 2014 (35(1)), 67–84. https://doi.org/10.1177/0143034313508878. , and , , “ ”, School Psychology International ( ( )), – . .)| false , D., “Felt tip pens and school councils: Children’s participation rights in four English schools”, 2001 (15(4)), 209–218. https://doi.org/10.1002/chi.651. , , “ ”, Children and Society ( ( )), – . .)| false Lo, Yan WingLeung and Wai WaYuen, “Exploring school ethos: an investigation of children’s human rights in two secondary institutions in Hong Kong”, 2015 (26(3)), 192–209. https://doi.org/10.1080/14675986.2015.1048078. , and , “ ”, Intercultural Education ( ( )), – . .)| false
Experts working within the field of children’s rights, from the areas of critical psychology, school psychology, social care and law, and identified by specialist academics working at The University of Manchester, were consulted by email and/or telephone conversation to support identification of relevant studies.
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IMAGES
COMMENTS
Child Rights Essay 10 Lines (100 - 150 Words) 1) Children have some basic human rights as adults which are referred to as child rights. 2) Every child has rights, irrespective of their age, race, gender, or where they were born. 3) Child rights are important for the physical and mental growth of children.
10 Lines on Child Rights. The declaration of Child's Right was established in the year 1924. The rights were formulated by saving the children founder, Eglantyne Jebb. The most important rights are- survival, developmental, protection and participation rights. It is an extension of human rights, especially for children below 18 years of age.
Introduction. Child rights are fundamental freedoms and the inherent rights of all human beings below the age of 18. These rights apply to every child, irrespective of their race, religion, or abilities. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), adopted in 1989, is a comprehensive human rights treaty that enshrines ...
The development of the child protection system in the United Kingdom has been distorted by two factors namely; the impact of media reporting and the way in which celebrated child abuse tragedies have been handled. We will write a custom essay specifically for you by our professional experts. 185 writers online.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted in 1989, is a landmark document that has guided the global effort to ensure the well-being and rights of children. However, there are still numerous challenges that children face, including poverty, discrimination, violence, and lack of access to education and healthcare.
Whatever their age, all children have human rights, just as adults do. This includes the right to speak out and express opinions, as well as rights to equality, health, education, a clean environment, a safe place to live and protection from all kinds of harm. Children's rights are enshrined in the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights ...
Selected Essays on Children's Rights. Series: Nijhoff Law Specials, Volume: 105. Author: Michael Freeman. For decades, Professor Michael Freeman has without doubt been one of the world's most infuential scholars in international children's rights. His scholarship has been at the forefront of the field and has helped shape many of the ...
Get a custom essay on Children's Rights: Global and Cultural View. For instance, in European or the United States, governments have been able to resolve such problems as exploitation or hazardous employment (Amnesty International, 2013). However, even in these countries, children can become victims of both sexual and physical abuse.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) was developed in 1989 and is the first legally binding international instrument to incorporate the full range of human rights for children —civil, cultural, economic, political and social. It is a recognition by world leaders that children have human rights and people under 18 ...
As seen from this children's rights essay, despite those remarkable achievements and great signs of progress in adopting and implementing the core principles of the CRC, a key challenge stands still. That is a huge number of young people are being born to impoverished families and children of ethnic groups living in rural regions and those who ...
Children's rights are at massive risk of violation because children lack independence from their parents and parental guardians. Therefore, children cannot fully represent their interests and often do not even acknowledge their rights. Thus, society's responsibility is to address the violations of the children's rights and ensure their ...
Paragraph 1 - 100 Words. The term 'Child Rights' means some basic rights that every child of a nation should have. The Child Rights are available for children without any religious, racial or any other discrimination. Almost all the countries of the world have become serious for the rights to children. They are making every effort in this ...
kevin.a.woods@manchester .ac.uk. Abstract. Children's rights ar e set out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the. Child. This systematic literature r eview aimed to investigate ...
Children are entitled to the same fundamental rights as adults, but because of their age, they require special protection and care.. Key rights of children include the right to a safe environment, the right to education, the right to play, and to be heard in decisions that affect them.. Protecting these rights is crucial for children to have fulfilling childhoods and continue to thrive as adults.
Children's rights tend to be defined in ways that are equally well covered by concepts of needs, welfare and best interests, and which miss the power of rights. The 3Ps are useful when analysing ...
Abstract Children's rights are set out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. This systematic literature review aimed to investigate children's views of children's rights, at a broad level. Nine papers were included, from a range of countries and contexts. They all accessed the views of children and young people (aged up to 18 years). A content analysis was carried ...
For decades, Professor Michael Freeman has without doubt been one of the world's most infuential scholars in international children's rights. His scholarship has been at the forefront of the field and has helped shape many of the developments within it. This collection offers the reader a thought-provoking snapshot of some of his most seminal essays, written and/or published over the past 30 ...
We have a comprehensive media campaign on mental health and advocacy for reproductive rights, including an essay competition, drama series, pad scholarship, and a podcast.