UNCRC

UNCRC – UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD

What is the UNCRC?
The UNCRC is a list of 54 promises (they call articles) made by governments from almost all countries (except USA and Somalia) in the UN to children and young people, including the right to education, equal treatment and the right to an opinion. All governments who have signed the UNCRC are supposed to work to make it part of their law.

What is a right?
A right is a promise made to people by governments. Rights are supposed to make sure that everybody is treated equally and fairly. A right is something you are born with and you will die with.

Responsibilities
All people have rights, but also the responsibility to make sure their behaviour doesn’t stop others getting their rights.

What is the United Nations?
The United Nations (UN) is a group of 191 countries. They work together on a number of issues which affect everyone. To help with this they created a list of rights everyone should have. There is one set of rights that are for children and young people. This is called the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (sometimes called the UNCRC).

The UNCRC covers ALL children and young people up to the age of 18. It has 54 articles, 42 of which detail the rights of children.

When?
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 20th November 1989.

In The UK
The UK Government signed up to the UNCRC on 16th December 1991. This means the government has committed to full implementation of the UNCRC in the UK. Since then, the Welsh Assembly Government and some Local Authorities local authorities have also signed up to commit to implementation of the UNCRC.

Making Sure
All countries that have signed up to the convention are accountable to the Committee on the Rights of the Child. Every five years the government has to report to this committee and provide evidence on how they are working towards full implementation of the UNCRC. The UNCRC is not a legally enforceable convention, it is a framework which addresses children’s needs around the world and enables people to understand children’s rights and adult’s responsibilities towards children. The UNCRC is the most widely ratified (signed up to) convention in the world.