What are the Rights of a Child? #5

How long is it since you considered the United Nation’s perspective on the rights of a child? Have you ever? It’s quite an enlightening exercise so this podcast episode goes through these rights and then shows how one early childhood centre has adapted those rights into a Children’s Rights Charter. It’s a beautiful example of a group of teachers working together over a period of time, and seriously putting the rights of the children in their centre onto paper. Since it’s an evolving document that’s plastered up on their walls, it means that it’s taken seriously. Every teacher, parent and child knows the guidelines so there’s consistency of care across the board. You can listen to this podcast episode on the player above or through iTunes or Stitcher, or read through the transcript below. The rights of a child Today I’m spending just a little time talking about the rights of the child. What are the rights of our children? What does the UN say they are? And what does that mean in the classroom or at home? The UN has a document of over 7000 words talking about the rights of the child and obviously most people are not going to dig their way through that. But I can see why it’s necessary because some people do misinterpret the rights as they are written. Fortunately, we don’t have to wade through that because they have been summarised into smaller points. One of the most important points is that it is supposed to include every child. All children should have access to equal rights. We know that that’s a wish rather than reality. This Convention has been the most widely signed of all the human rights Conventions so we know that countries take this very seriously, but there’s a big difference between ratifying a Convention and actually protecting children. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child Please feel free to download the following 2 posters containing the Rights of the Child in child-friendly language. What do they mean? There are so many issues that can be raised with each of the points above, but for now it’s just a reminder of what the conventions are, what the rights of the children are, and as a reminder of something we so often take for granted. I came across a Children’s Charter this week that was in the magazine, Every Child, that is published by Early Childhood Australia. It was so well written that it really resonated with me and it’s one reason why I wanted to do this episode. I’m going to read out to you what this early childhood centre decided would make a good Children’s Rights Charter. The staff all got together and they’ve changed this over the years, but it’s from Cooloon Children’s Centre in NSW, Australia. I love the way they’ve put the UN Children’s Rights into terms that make sense in their early childhood centre. Children’s Rights Charter The following poster is also included in the download link above. You might like to use it yourself. Just enlarge it as you print and you’ll have a great poster for your centre. Please note: the points below are not mine,