The United Nations Rights of a Child; what is the adolescent
perspective?
Danielle Gertner, Caroline Fertleman.
Paediatric Department at The Whittington Hospital NHS Trust, London UK
Introduction
3. The most highly ranked UN Rights by the adolescents included:
• United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child
details over 40 rights for children.
i)
Non-discrimination
• NHS healthcare aims to maintain equality and create safe
environments for children.
ii)
Survival and development
Aims
iii)
Right to education
iv)
Children with disabilities
v)
Protection from all forms of violence
(Article 2)
The Convention applies to every child whatever their ethnicity, gender, religion, abilities,
whatever they think or say, no matter what type of family they come from
(Article 6)
Every child has the right to life. Governments must do all they can to ensure that children
survive and grow up healthy.
(Article 28)
Every child has the right to an education. Primary education must be free. Secondary
education must be available to every child. Discipline in schools must respect children’s human
dignity. Wealthy countries must help poorer countries achieve this.
• Explore what adolescents know about UN Rights of a Child.
• Ascertain which rights they view as the most and least important.
(Article 23)
A child with a disability has the right to live a full and decent life in conditions that promote
dignity, independence and an active role in the community. Governments must do all they can
to provide free care and assistance to children with disability
• Gain an insight into the minds of adolescents in a hospital
environment.
• Use these findings to maintain equality and create safe
environments for children.
(Article 19)
Governments must do all they can to ensure that children are protected from all forms of
violence, abuse, neglect and mistreatment by their parents or anyone else who looks after
them.
UN Rights Ranked in Top 5
Methods
50
Five post GCSE work experience students found 100 willing
adolescents in hospital to complete a questionnaire.
Adolescents were presented with 40 UN Rights of a Child and
asked to rank their five most important Rights.
The work experience students spent an average of twenty minutes
with each adolescent, supporting them in answering the
questionnaire.
Other questions included were designed to collect demographic
data and whether they had been aware of the UN Rights of a child
previously.
40
35
% of adolescents
The adolescents were aged between 11-18 years and supervised
by a responsible adult.
45
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Non-discrimination
Survival and
development
Right to education
Children with
disabilities
Protection from
violence
Figure 3: Graph showing the five most highly ranked UN Rights of the Child
4. The UN Rights deemed the ‘least important’ by the adolescents:
Results
UN Rights ranked in Bottom 2
1. The 100 adolescents who took part identified themselves as
coming from many different ethnic backgrounds.
i) Juvenile Justice
16
(Article 40)
14
African
Afro-Caribean
Asian
Black
Black British
Black Caribean
Black-African
British
British Asian
Caucasian
Eastern European
Hispanic
Indian
Iranian
Jamacian
Jewish
Middle-Eastern
Mixed
Pakistani
Somalian
South American
Turkish
White
White Asian
White British
White Irish
White/European
A child accused or guilty of breaking the law must
be treated with dignity and respect. They have the
right to help from a lawyer and a fair trial that takes
account of their age or situation. The child’s privacy
must be respected at all times.
% of adolescents
12
10
8
ii) Access to Information; mass media
6
(Article 17)
Every child has the right to reliable information from
the mass media. Television, radio, newspapers and
other media should provide information that children
can understand. Governments must help protect
children from materials that could harm them.
4
2
0
Juvenille justice Access to information
Figure 4: Graph showing the two UN Rights ranked as the least important
Conclusions
Figure 1: Demonstrates the variation of ethnic backgrounds amongst the adolescents.
2. The majority of adolescents were previously unaware of the UN
Convention on the Rights of the Child
UNAWARE
69%
AWARE
31%
• This multicultural group of adolescents at this inner-London
hospital value ‘non-discrimination’ as the most important UN
Right of Child and ‘juvenile justice’ the least.
• These results may help guide our practices within the healthcare
system. It is the first step to initiating change.
• Further work is needed to educate the next generation about the
UN Rights of the Child.
Figure 2: Demonstrates percentage of adolescents who stated they were previously unaware of the
UN Rights of a Child
References
1. United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 2. Irving et al (2012). Australian Student's Perceptions of the Importance and Existence of their Rights; School Psychology International; 22(2) 224-240. 3. Balci et al (2012). Perceptions of secondary level students about the
United Nations (UN) and the UN permanent member sates; Ozean Journal of Applied sciences; 5(1) 1943-2429. 4. Sherrod et al (2008). Adolescent's Perceptions of Rights as Reflected in Their Views of Citizenship; 64(4) 771-790. 5. Peterson-Badali et al (2008). Studying Children's
Perspectives on Self-Determination and Nurturance Rights: Issues and Challenges, 64(4) 749-769. 6. http://www.unicef.org.uk/Documents/Publication-pdfs/UNCRC_summary.pdf