4 The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
Learning about peace and justice from a perspective of (universal) human rights can be an inclusive way of helping all members of a school community participate in peace among us.
Activity 7 Beginning to explore the UNCRC
Follow the link below to find a summary of Articles 1–42 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child:
Articles 1–42 [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)]
Take a moment to read through the titles of each article to get a sense of what each one covers. Are there any that give you pause for thought about your own school community? Where can you celebrate your existing practice, what foundations do you have to build on and what could you work towards?
Discussion
You may have found yourself paying attention to Articles 28 and 29, which deal directly with children’s rights in respect of education. Article 30 can be thought-provoking for schools with multilingual communities as they consider the extent to which children and young people feel able to use their preferred languages as part of their learning. Article 12 chimes with the goals of peace among us in schools, as it calls for children’s views and opinions to be listened to and taken seriously. This is important in peer mediation as both sides of the conflict have the opportunity to be heard. You might also think of this in relation to Nahal’s description of ‘pupil leadership teams’ that you met in the first part of this session.
The final section of this session has given a brief overview of UNICEF’s Rights Respecting Schools programme in the UK. You can find out more about the initiative by following the links to UNICEF’s own website on the Resources and recommendations page of this course, where you’ll find information and support.