The Rights of the Child

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) was approved by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 20 November 1989.

The Convention is composed of 54 articles and the text is divided into three parts: the first contains the enunciation of rights (Arts. 1-41), the second identifies the bodies in charge and the modalities for the improvement and monitoring of the Convention (Arts. 42-45), while the third describes the ratification procedure (Arts. 46-54).

The 10 fundamental rights to child welfare are:

1. children's right to play and enjoy themselves;
2. children's right to food and to be properly nourished;
3. right of children to have a home, a home where they can protect themselves from the cold and where they can live with their family. Besides being a protected place, it must be a home where the child can live with understanding, tolerance, friendship, love and protection;
4. children's right to health
   Children's right to health is one of the fundamental rights to which every child should have access. The right to health is a compendium of physical, mental and social well-being, and even more so in children, who are more vulnerable to illness. 20 November each year is International Children's Day;
5. children's right to education
   The right of children to education is reflected in the Declaration of the Rights of the Child. All children have the right to education, regardless of gender, religion, nationality or any other status. The state must do everything possible to ensure that children have access to education;
6. children's right to life and to have a family
   Children, for the full development of their personality, need love and understanding. To grow up under the responsibility of their parents and in an atmosphere of affection and moral and material security. The right of children to life and to have a family;
7. the right to a nationality
   From birth, the child has the right to have a name and a surname. All children must be registered immediately after their birth, as parents are obliged to inform the newborn's name, surname and date of birth;
8. children's right to equality, regardless of race, religion or nationality. This is intended to ensure that all children are treated equally, regardless of their origin and whether they are in the country they are in, or have the colour of their skin of any colour;
9. children's right to express their views
   The Convention on the Rights of the Child recognises in Articles 12 and 13 the right of children to express their opinion and their freedom of expression. Because children should express opinions as freely as adults;
10. children's right not to work
    The right to protection against child labour reads as follows: The child shall be protected from all forms of neglect, cruelty and exploitation. He/she shall not be subjected to any kind of trafficking and the child should not be allowed to work before an appropriate minimum age.

In addition to these fundamental UN rights, we believe there are also the emotional rights of children.
We take our cue from the portalbambini.it to bring you the Charter of Children's Emotional Rights: it consists of seven rights (or rather, six rights and one duty) which, if guaranteed, form the basis for healthy emotional growth:

1. children have the right to experience all emotions, none excluded;
2. children have the right to be listened to and respected when expressing an emotion;
3. children have the right to feel sadness. If they wish, they have the right to be alone and quiet when they are sad;
4. children have the right to feel anger when faced with injustice;
5. children have the right to live in an environment that allows them to experience joy, love, curiosity, wonder, serenity, pride and fun;
6. children have the right not to be judged for the emotions they express;
7. children have a duty to understand when emotions can turn into behaviour (reaction) and when they should remain just emotions (self-control).