Children’s Rights are Human Rights

In addition to spend most of our time working to improve health and wellbeing, we at Fast Forward are also strongly committed to promoting young people’s human rights.

And something that really helps us do that is the United Nation’s document the Convention on the Rights of the Child, also known as the UN CRC.

While most people have heard of the UN’s convention on human rights, not many people are aware that there is a special charter that sets down in international law the rights of children and young people. Now Scotland is leading the way by embedding the UN CRC in Scottish law itself.

Human rights are the basic rights and freedoms that everyone, and especially young people, have simply because they are human beings. They are not given out by governments and there are interconnected. Under international law, all governments have to respect and obey them.

Young people’s rights are special. They include fundamentals like the right to a name, to an education, to play and to a nationality. What’s more, Scotland has a special commissioner whose job it is to make sure these rights are respected. His name is Bruce Adamson and he helps organisations like Fast Forward make sure we are promoting and supporting the UN CRC.

Fast Forward is currently supporting a youth-led theatrical production of ‘Dr Korczak’s Example’, a play that explores the origins of the UN CRC during the Second World War. If you’d like to find out more about the play, visit: http://strangetown.org.uk/projects/dr-korczaks-example-fringe-2018-tour/

If you’d like to find out more about the UN CRC and how it should be used by Scottish voluntary groups and young people’s organisations, please visit:

https://www.gov.scot/policies/human-rights/childrens-rights/