UNICEF - Voices of Youth: Explore

The big picture: human rights, children's rights

The world is undergoing a major transformation, and it is all about you.

Aventina, 9, at home in Chicumbane, Mozambique.

Yours is the first generation to have grown up since this transformation really got going.

Today more than ever before, children and young people are recognized as having rights. What's more, they are seen as having an active role to play in asserting those rights.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child

Children's rights are set out in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the most widely ratified (given legal force) human rights convention of all time. In 1989, world leaders decided that children needed a special convention just for them because people under 18 years old (children) often need special care and protection that adults do not. The leaders also wanted to make sure that the world recognized that children have human rights too.

What are human rights?

Human rights apply to every human being everywhere, and are rights to which you have a just claim. They are founded on respect for the dignity and worth of each individual.

In other words, all you have to do to qualify for human rights is to be human. So whether you are the head of state or a beggar on the streets, a pop star or a factory worker, an Olympic runner or a wheelchair user; whatever your race, colour, gender, language, religion, opinions, origins, wealth, birth status or ability, you are entitled to these fundamental rights.

This section of Voices of Youth has all the information you need to find out about your rights and what the world, and other young people, are doing to make sure they are respected. So start exploring!