What are your rights? What do you need to live a happy, healthy life?
Get crafting and make a string of children’s rights to display in your window or hang in your home. Explore what your rights are. Which do you feel are the most vital? Does every child in the world currently have all of them?
Then get designing, drawing or writing to find the best way to express how it feels to have those rights and why they are so important.
What is The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child?
In 1989, governments across the world adopted the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), recognising that all children have the right to be treated with dignity and fairness, to be protected, to develop to their full potential and to participate.
The leaders of the world agreed that all children in all countries have the same fundamental rights. From the wealthiest to the poorest, these rights do not change, they are things like education, play, access to health services and protection from violence.
The Convention sets out what countries must do to ensure that all children can enjoy their rights, regardless of who they are, or where they are from.
What does it say?
Look at this summary of the rights enshrined in the convention. It goes through the key parts of the bill and explains what your rights are.
The actual Convention is a bit longer and more complex, but if you would like to you can read a longer summary here or the whole thing here.
Which are most important to you? Do any seem less important? Which do you think are the hardest to achieve for every child?
Making your string of rights:
Use index cards or cut pieces paper/card to the same size.
Use a hole punch to make holes on all 4 corners of your pieces of paper / cards.
Draw or write on the paper/cards the rights that you feel are the most important (this can be as many as you want – maybe it is all of them!). You might want to draw a picture of what that right is or explain in words why it is important to you.
Attach your cards together by putting string through the holes you made in the corners.
Hang your string of rights in your room/home. You could put it in your window for those passing by your home to see too. This is a great reminder of the basic rights that you think are important, and a way to tell others in your household about them – especially the adults.
Take it further
Can you put your chosen rights in order of importance to you on your string?
Could you make a string of rights that you feel you or others don’t have?
If you enjoyed this activity around important rights you should check out Hands up for your rights to help you determine between wants and needs.
