Written in 1989 and adopted by more than 190 countries around the world, the UNCRC is a set of rules, or ‘articles’, defining how each child and young person should be kept safe from harm, have chances to develop, become an individual and thrive.

Here is a poster UNICEF have made, which summarises all 54 articles: UNCRC_summary-1.pdf

The UNCRC helps us keep children and young people at the centre of everything we do through our RCPCH &Us network. We’re proud to help protect and promote children’s rights, and enable thousands of children and young people each year to participate through our projects and events.

RCPCH &Us children and young people have looked at the UNCRC. They picked five articles that they think are the most important to remember and tell others about. (They also said that all the rights are important so they are not forgetting about the other ones!) 

Rights are like pancakes – each right is important, but when you layer them up, they make something strong, which protects all children and young people.

Here are their top 5:

Article 12 – The right to be involved in decisions that affect you, from individual care decisions through to shaping health services that you might use

Article 23 – Infants, children and young people with disabilities have the right to be involved, which includes having appropriate communication support within health care appointments and engagement work

Article 24 – The right to the best health care possible, thinking here about child and youth friendly health services

Article 28 – The right to education, thinking about while they are an inpatient, or structuring services to avoid missing school due to medical appointments or supporting engagement sessions in evening and weekends/school holidays

Article 31 – The right to rest, relax and play, which in a health context also needs to include support for parents of children with complex health needs to think about how to engage in social activities, and for health care services to acknowledge their role in providing services that do not prevent infants, children and young people from socialising with their peers (eg clinic times)

The rights all make sense – most of them are common sense and should happen anyway.

We have lots of tools and resources to help you understand more about your rights, and to teach your friends and family about them too! Why not…

Download our Recipes for Rights booklet, created by children and young people in 2020

Read The Youth Narrative’s article on rights, which featured in the Spring Edition of Milestones, the College’s quarterly magazine for paediatricians

Watch Raheema’s video on Children’s Rights, created whilst on an internship with us one summer

Read young volunteer Demi’s poster on GDPR, which explains how you have the right to have your personal data kept safe