As per Article 42 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC): ‘(knowledge of rights) Governments must actively work to make sure that children and adults know about the Convention’ (Unicef UK, 2019). In the United Kingdom, the main method of information distribution to children is the National Curriculum, which is the foundation of the education system. Currently, human rights education falls within the subject of Citizenship but is only specified in the Curriculum for Key Stage 4 (Years 10 and 11): ‘human rights and international law’ (Department for Education, 2013: 3). Citizenship is not compulsory under the Key Stage 1 or 2 national curriculums, and the Key Stage 3 (Years 7 to 9) teaching content framework does not focus on rights specifically. It instead refers to rights as ‘the precious liberties enjoyed by the citizens of the United Kingdom’ (Department for Education, 2013: 2). This means that pupils are not being educated about their rights. The importance of the legal responsibilities of adults to ensure that the rights set out by the declaration are enjoyed by all under the ages of 18, are ignored. Furthermore, by not educating children about their rights, we leave them vulnerable to being victims of rights abuses because they are not informed about what is classified as a legal right and what to do if they or someone they know has their rights violated.
In addition to not teaching all children about their rights, the education system also fails to educate children about their rights properly and effectively. Key Stages 1 and 2 (primary school) do not have to learn about citizenship as it is on the optional list of their national curriculums. However, if a school chooses to teach citizenship, guidance for Key stage 1 states that children should be taught ‘to realise that people and things have needs, and they have responsibilities to meet them’ (Departments for Education, 2015: 1). Similarly, Key stage 2 pupils are taught ‘that there are different kinds of responsibilities, rights and duties at home, at school and in the community’ (Department for Education, 2015: 3). Covell and Howe’s (2010) paper titled: “Miseducating Children About Their Rights” identifies that ‘although there is a conceptual linkage between rights and responsibilities, effective education requires that the central focus is on rights and that children are given the opportunity to discover for themselves the connection between rights and responsibilities’. The Citizenship teaching guidance focuses more on responsibilities in relation to rights. It does not actually teach what the rights are and therefore does not allow pupils to make the connection between rights and their corresponding responsibilities. For example, the right to ‘protection from violence, abuse and neglect’ (Unicef UK, 2019) would have the responsibility to report incidents of violence, abuse, or neglect to the appropriate authorities. The fact that ‘teachers unduly focus on responsibilities is miseducation about children’s rights’ (Covell and Howe, 2010).
There is currently limited research into the extent to which children are aware of or understand their rights under the United Nation Declaration on the Rights of the Child. This is arguably due to ethical issues around research with children as participants as well as the levels of understanding around rights issues not being a particularly broad area of study. However, research that has been conducted on this issue depicts a narrow view of children’s understanding of their rights. In 2014, the Office for the Children’s Rights Director for England produced a report on the UK’s compliance with the UNCRC. The research was limited as it only consisted of ‘children in care or receiving social care services, and children living away from home in residential education’ (Morgan, 2014). Although the results largely showed that the majority of participants enjoy their rights as per the UNCRC, it does not cover Article 42. None of the questions asked to the participants asked about the convention specifically nor did it ask about other rights legislation. Therefore, this is no way to truly measure how the UK is doing using the research collated by the Office for the Children’s Rights Director for England.
From the evidence examined above, one could reasonably conclude that the UK is falling short of its legal requirement, set by Article 42 of the UNCRC, to educate children on their rights and the convention itself. This then leaves children vulnerable to having their rights abused as they do not have the knowledge to identify and report violations. The Children’s Rights Group recommends that more legislation is needed to ensure the correct teaching of rights in the UK. For example, making rights education part of the compulsory national curriculum for Key Stages 1 and 2 as well as putting more of a focus on the rights themselves instead of the responsibilities for Key Stage 3 pupils. We also recommend conducting large scale research into the levels of understanding of children’s rights in the UK.