Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Children’s views on rights and responsibilities.
Rights and responsibilities as written by children in England.
The Children’s Rights Director for England, Roger Morgan has published the results of a consultation with children and young people in England seeking their view on rights and responsibilities. The report is written “ so that it (they) can easily be read by children and young people, as well as by government ministers”.
At the centre of the consultation was a National Children’s Conference where children from all over England were invited to come and share their views and discuss rights and responsibilities. Alongside this there was an online survey for children to choose to complete and a series of school visits to hold workshops.
In total there were 1,834 responses from children aged 4-24, equally split between boys and girls. (54% boys, 46% girls) which formed the report . These children were from boarding schools, children’s homes, residential special schools, and foster care settings. 70% of children thought “it would be a good idea to write down rights and responsibilities that everyone has in this country in one place”
The children and young people were then asked if it were to be written down in one place what would the list of rights and responsibilities include.
Using both the Human Rights Act and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child as well as adding any of their own, the children and young people were asked to identify which were the most important rights and responsibilities for children to have – from over 66,000 votes a top ten of rights and responsibilities for children in England was compiled.
Children’s top 10 responsibilities
1. Responsibility for your own behaviour and actions 40%
2. Making use of your education 31%
3. Showing respect to others 25%
4. Responsibility for your own safety 20%
5. Looking after others 19%
6. Looking after yourself 18%
7. Your own health and hygiene 14%
8. Carrying out your responsibilities around the house 12%
9. Looking after the environment 9%
10. Giving your opinion 8%
Children's top ten rights.
1 To be protected from abuse
2 To have an education
3 To be helped to keep alive and well
4 Not to be discriminated against because of my race, colour, sex, disability, language or beliefs
5 Not to be treated or punished in a way that is cruel or meant to make me feel bad about myself
6 Special help for any child with a disability
7 To have privacy
8 Not to be bullied
9 To keep in touch with my parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters if I want to and they want to, wherever we all live
10 To have my private letters, phone calls, emails and messages kept confidential .
Numbers nine and ten were devised by the children and were seen as a higher priority to them than many rights in the UN convention or the human rights act. The report proposes that these are considered for inclusion by all bodies devising policy and legislation around children's rights.
The full report details the reasons given by the children for their choices.