Written Statement: Raising Awareness of Children’s Rights

Wales has led the way on children’s rights in the UK. We were the first part of the UK to enshrine the UNCRC in law through The Rights of Children and Young Persons (Wales) Measure 2011.  

Section 5 of the Measure places a duty on Welsh Ministers to take appropriate steps to promote public knowledge and understanding of the UNCRC and its Optional Protocols. This duty gives effect to article 42 of the UNCRC, that governments should make the convention known to children and their parents. It also enables children to realise their rights by ensuring the adults around have the knowledge and understanding to support them.

We want a Wales for all Children. A Wales where every child knows that they have rights, understands what they mean and has support to be able to exercise them. Achieving this requires a culture and commitment that respects children’s rights, and over the years we have delivered some groundbreaking work, which will have a long-term impact on the awareness of children’s rights throughout Wales. This includes:

• The expansion of Young Wales, which ensures children and young people have a voice in Welsh Government policy, legislation and implementation.
• Endorsing and promoting ‘The Right Way’, a principled approach to embedding children’s rights in policy and practice.
• Publishing the Early Childhood Play, Learning and Care Plan, which includes developing specific resources to support the youngest children to access their rights.
• Including children’s human rights in Wales’ new curriculum.
• Developing a suite of professional learning resources to promote knowledge and understanding of the UNCRC and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) and support the new curriculum, which will have a long term, sustainable impact on children’s awareness of their rights.
• Enhancing parents’ and carers’ ability to support their children’s rights through Parenting. Give it time. Extensive engagement and communications work has also been undertaken through the Ending Physical Punishment campaign.
• Providing training and resources for practitioners so they can teach children sensitively about the law in Wales that prevents the physical punishment of children and uphold their right to live free from violence.
• With the Children’s Commissioner, providing us and our partners with a consistent approach to embedding children’s rights in all of our work that affects children through ‘A Wales for all Children’.

I’m pleased to publish today an infographic that sets out some of the key activities we do to embed a culture of raising awareness of children’s rights to children and those who work and care for them. We will build on this activity and continue to deliver targeted and innovative approaches to raise awareness of children's rights in Wales.