As the Universal Declaration of Human Rights celebrates its 60th Anniversary, a survey of the Children’s Rights Alliance for England (CRAE) has found that 97% of its members do not think that the general public has a good understanding of children’s human rights.

Although the UK Government is bound by international law to inform children and adults of the provisions of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, CRAE members reported widespread misunderstanding of children’s human rights amongst the general public, the media, and politicians. Only 20% of respondents agreed that Government Ministers have a good understanding of children’s human rights.

This perceived lack of understanding of children’s rights belies the fact that CRAE’s members are using the Convention on the Rights of the Child to try to improve children’s everyday lives. More than half the members who responded (54%) said that they had used the Convention within the past seven days. 78% responded that they had achieved either some or a lot of change for children through using human rights in their work. Nearly 9 out of 10 respondents had achieved better awareness of children’s human rights among adults and 60% said children and young people were listened to more. Nearly a third of respondents said they had used human rights to improve child safety, with one in four specifically reporting they had ensured child protection law was followed.

Carolyne Willow, National coordinator for the Children’s Rights Alliance for England (CRAE), said:

‘A substantial number of our membership work directly with children and know the strengths of using human rights as a tool for change in local communities. However, understanding of children’s human rights amongst the wider public is well below the level expected under international law.

‘Human rights are there to protect the dignity and equal worth of people of all ages. Too often we hear about children in vulnerable situations who were not listened to, whose rights were not protected. We have an obligation to the children of this country to make the Convention on the Rights of the Child a reality. This can only be done if the Government upholds its commitment to inform people about what human rights for children actually mean.’