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Human rights are essential to building and maintaining healthy, democratic communities where all human beings are respected. As human beings, children have rights, too. In fact, children's rights are human rights!
The goal of the activities in this section is to help teachers facilitate lessons on child rights. Through learning about the rights all children share, students will develop an understanding of how rights connect with the global and environmental issues discussed in Kids Who Care.
Definitions of Child Rights
Child Rights are the human rights of people under the age of 18. They recognize children's inherent worth and dignity and ensure that ALL children, without discrimination, get what's best for their survival and development and are free to participate in society.
You can find a copy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at http://www.unhchr.ch/udhr/index.htm
Why teach child rights?
Why is it important to teach child rights? There are many reasons.
Understanding child rights helps young people understand their lives within the context of their own communities and the larger world. This leads them to respect the rights of other children and adults just as they wish their own rights to be respected. With this foundation, children will learn to understand and appreciate people with lives and experiences different from their own.
Some of us take our rights for granted, particularly if we've never had them abused or threatened. Unfortunately, many children in our classrooms and our world aren't so lucky. Having knowledge of rights helps young people - or adults who advocate for them - stand up for their rights. Fortified with an understanding of their entitlements as human beings, which in turn encourages a stronger sense of self, young people are more likely to speak up, or seek out help when their rights are violated.
Another part of learning about rights is developing a clear understanding of who has rights (everyone does!) and the difference between rights and privileges. Our experience has shown that when young people understand that it is justifiable for privileges (not rights) to be taken away as a consequence for a particular action, and that their rights need to be balanced with other people's rights, a lot of the "attitude" that adults complain about in their dealings with young people disappears. Increased knowledge of rights can, therefore, promote constructive conversations between adults and young people about problems they face.
Learning about rights is integral to becoming a full citizen and central to the concept of rights is the notion of participation. Child participation is the process by which children become meaningfully engaged in all work that affects them, either directly or indirectly. As children develop their skills, knowledge and a sense of their own individuality or agency, their capacity to participate in society grows . We can't expect children to just "become" effective leaders who are responsible for the planet and the future without giving them tools and opportunities to share in decision-making while they are developing. In other words, children need to experience their rights by being given opportunities to take responsibility and stick up for these rights.
Canada has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child. In agreeing to this Convention, we as Canadians are obligated "to make the rights contained in this Convention widely known to both adults and children" (Article 42). The Convention also requires that children's education be directed to "the development of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms" (Article 29).
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Acknowledgements
Plan Canada appreciates and recognizes the involvement of Save the Children Canada in the development of this chapter.
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