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Your rights

This section tells you what your rights are under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and what you legally can and can’t do at different ages.

Kat from the young person’s BigVoiceOxfordshire.com working group says:

Every person in the world has rights under the Declaration of Human Rights (1948). Every young person until they turn 18 has their own set of human rights under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)

The UNCRC is a list of children and young people’s rights drawn up in the late 1980’s, so that they would know exactly what their rights were and what adults should do to make them happen.

It's quite a long list – there are 42 articles (promises made by the government) all together, so I’m not going to repeat all of it, but I will try and give you a basic run down. If you want to read the whole thing, then you can see it at http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/k2crc.htm

Some of your basic rights are:

  • The right to protection (right to life, right not to be kidnapped, right not to be abused)
  • The right to provision (right to good standard of housing, right to medical care, right to education)
  • The right to participation (right to have your opinion listened to, right to play)

There are lots more, but that’s what they boil down to.

Remember, if you think that one of your basic rights is being threatened or denied, you can make a complaint at any age call the national helpline "You've got the right" advice for children on human rights

Freephone: 0800 32 88 759 (Standard charges apply from mobiles. Textphone users dial 18001 first)
Lines open: Tue - Thur from 3.30pm to 5.30pm
advice@crae.org.uk
www.crae.org.uk

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