UNCRC! What is it? Why is it so important?

With Universal Children's Day coming up on Thursday November 20th 2014, I thought it would be a good time to reflect on the UNCRC. This will be based on the opportunity I was given to present a session at the Wolfson Centre for UCL students on the BSc module of Global Child Health  last year with the RCPCH. 
The UNCRC stands for the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The UNCRC is a very important document that was passed by the United Nations (UN) in 1989 and was ratified in the UK in 1991. The UNCRC is made up of 42 articles which outline the civil, political, social, economic and cultural rights of children. These are the rights that every child should have, regardless of where they are in the world. These rights should be met by the governments of every country. 

The four guiding principles upon which the UNCRC is built are: 

1. Non - discrimination 
2. Best interests of the child 
3. Survival and Development 
4. Respect for views of the child

Through these guiding principles, the articles form around three different types of rights: 

1. Protection
2. Participation 
3. Provision 

The articles outlined in this convention makes up a huge part of the advocate work I do as part of the RCPCH. To ensure that children and young peoples voices are heard and that they are allowed to take part in all aspects of their life, when safe to do so, and to ensure that children's rights are not being disregarded and ensure their voices are on the agenda for everyone who comes into contact with children and young people. The UNCRC advocates on all principles of life of a child, but for this instance I will be paying particular interest to the articles within the convention which relates to health, as these are the ones in which I work the most with. However, all the articles are very important and should be taken into consideration by all, you can find a link to the whole convention at the bottom of this post.

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Article 12
Every child has the right to say what they think in all matters affecting them, and to have their views taken seriously. 

Article 23
A child with a disability has the right to live a full and decent life in conditions that promote dignity. independence ad an active role in the community. Governments must do all they can to provide free care and assistance to children with disability. 

Article 24 
Every child has the right to the best possible health. Governments must provide good quality health care, clean water, nutritious food and a clean environment so that children can stay healthy. Richer countries must help poorer countries achieve this. 

Article 42
Governments must make the Convention known to children and adults. 

Article 12 has much resonance with me, as someone who has a long term condition, it is and was important that my thoughts and views were being taken into consideration when decisions were being made. At the end of the day it is 'my body, my life, my rights', right? It will be the young person who will have to live with the ramifications of what is going on. Therefore, it is important to allow the child to have a say in what is going on and a chance to ensure that they have all the information they need in order to come up with a sensible opinion.  In this instance, it is important that all individuals involved with the child allows the child to have enough information in an accessible format to ensure the child understand the consequences of what is going on and what will happen. 

Article 23, another poignant article with myself. It is important to ensure that a child/ young person with a disability is afforded by the government the services and equipment that they need in order to ensure they can live a 'normal' life. Whatever that may be. In the cases that this doesn't happen, if I may refer to myself as a point of reference, it can often leave you feeling isolated and even more 'dis - abled'. You start to feel the effects of your disability more, and you start to become more reclusive and it can start to have a serious impact on your emotional and mental health. That was definitely what was happening to me when I was younger, there were barriers being put in place for me in terms of what I could and could not do.  You can read more about these barriers and my life experiences with OI here. To avoid these issues, young people with disabilities should be given the resources they need to be able to live their lives how they want to, alongside their peers and be who they want to be. They should not be treated differently to other children and young people and they are the same as every other child and therefore, nothing should stand to differentiate them

Article 24, is a very obvious one, but is very important. All the things outlined in this clause is the basic necessities all children and young people should have access to.  I think the most important part of that articles is the latter part which, mentions that "richer countries must help poorer countries". This is the only way in which the world as a whole can move forward, when rich countries stop looking for profits or gains before helping others. Rich countries should help those who are less well off for the pure sakes of humanity and for the betterment of others. As a politics student, I fully understand that this is not always going to happen. However, if we were to think about it from an economic and political standpoint, if children and young people were given access to all the things outlined in this article then those children will grow up to be well educated, healthy citizens who would be able to contribute more to the economy of their home country and produce more effective outputs which can be utilised by the richer countries. Only by investing in others can you invest for the future. We are living in a world were we depend so highly on others, and it is crazy when it comes to health we seek only to help our own, when actually their is no 'our own'. We live in one world, we are all humans and we all should have access to the basic necessities wherever we may be, and we all have a certain degree of responsibility towards that.

Article 42, the dissemination of these rights are vital. If children and young people, and those that work with them, are not sure what rights they are entitled to then how can we expect them to ensure that they are upheld. While in the UK this may be being done well by charities and NGOs, I feel more could be being done in schools and PHSCE programs to make all children aware of the basic rights they have within the society they live in. While, I admit that in some schools this is done, it is not consistent across the country. As I mentioned before, young people should be in possession of all the information and facts that is appropriate for them, they need to be in control of their lives, as much as it is safe for them too. Everyone should be aware of these rights to ensure that they are not a contravening them in actions they may be carrying out. Also the material that is available on the internet, while there is some things which are accessible for young people, like the video I have used and the summary provided below, I think if there were more ways in which we were able to ensure children and young people could find and learn about their rights would be increasingly beneficial. 

A simplified visual representation of the UNCRC made by Gilwern Primary School.

The full document can be found on the UNICEF website and linked below: 
Full version: http://www.unicef.org.uk/Documents/Publication-pdfs/UNCRC_PRESS200910web.pdf
Summary: http://www.unicef.org.uk/Documents/Publication-pdfs/UNCRC_summary.pdf

To conclude, the UNCRC is the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and I would say it is very important as they provide a benchmark of rights for children and young people. It provides an collection of rights that encompasses everyone under the age of 18 and ensure that their voices are heard, they are protected and they are taken into account and not forgotten!
The articles within the convention should be inherent within our society and in the world. In developed countries, like the UK and Germany, we can safely say that really good progress has been made to ensure that these articles is met. However, these principles aren't always followed and in some countries they don't exist and children and young people continue to be exploited, their voices aren't heard and decent provision isn't made for them as in some countries they aren't seen as worthy citizens worth spending resources on. In some countries, the UNCRC can't even be ratified because it does not have a internationally recognised government, such as in Somalia. Further, there are hundred of millions of children around the world who have been forced into child labour. Many of these children are forced to work in sweatshop, as prostitutes, etc, and are economically and sexually exploited and/ or physically abused. This should not be acceptable in the world at this time. People need to take a stand to ensure that young people rights are upheld and to ensure that our governments know that we won't stand for children to be exploited and mistreated and ensure our governments work with foreign governments in a collaboration to do something in countries were their own domestic government won't do anything to help their own children. This convention gives us a overview of the things which all children should have, therefore we have a benchmark to work on to ensure that children slowly across the world start receiving these rights. The work of charities and NGOs such as UNICEF and Save The Children are working toward this with our help. We will keep going to ensure children are heard, just locally but globally!
I would like to end with a photo essay that was compiled by UNICEF, highlighting some more of the important articles found within the UNCRC.

 http://www.unicef.org/photoessays/30556.html