Raising awareness of children's rights
All organisations that work for and with children and young people should support their staff to understand the importance of children's rights and their application to their work. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is the most widely ratified international human rights treaty in the world and underpins the Welsh Assembly Government's policy for children and young people.
Staff across Wales should be assisted to develop their understanding of the importance of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in realising children's rights and improving children's lives. Promoting and protecting the rights of children should be seen as everyone’s responsibility and organisations should do what they can to publicly champion children’s rights and challenge children’s rights violations.
There are a whole host of children's rights resources (leaflets, DVDs, websites, publications) which can be made available to all staff to help develop their understanding of children's rights.
Please go to our Library and take a look at our Education and Training section to learn more.
Monitoring children’s rights education for key professions in Wales
Article 42 of the UNCRC states that all adults and children should know about the UNCRC. In the 2008 Concluding Observations to Wales, the UN Committee said that the Welsh Government (WG) should make sure that the rights in the UNCRC are known and understood by adults and children and that there must be training on the UNCRC for all adults working with children including the police, immigration workers, the media, teachers, health professionals, social workers and childcare workers.
The Article 42 group, a sub committee of the Wales UNCRC Monitoring Group, is holding a series of hearings examining how professionals can be supported to protect and promote children’s rights effectively through training and work practice. Each hearing focuses on one of the professionals groups referred to above. Expert witnesses are invited to advise on the present position and what measures need to be taken to improve awareness of the UNCRC in that profession. The evidence will be used to develop an awareness raising strategy to support the Welsh Government to fulfil their obligations as duty bearers.
Hearings to date have looked at teachers, social workers, health professionals, childcare workers and the police. Below you will find the reports and other supporting papers on each of these professional groups, including recommendations for the Welsh and UK Governments.
This presentation below was put together by Dr. Christina Hudson who spent 8 weeks as an intern with Save the Children researching awareness of the UNCRC amongest Health Practitioners in Wales.