UNICEF
United Nations Children’s Fund

KNOW YOUR RIGHTS

Children’s rights in plain English

Conventions on the Rights of the Child Article 44:

1. States Parties undertake to submit to the Committee (on the Rights of the Child) through the Secretary-General of the United Nations reports on the measures they have adopted which give effect to the rights recognised herein and which give effect to the rights recognised herein and on the progress made on the enjoyment of those rights:

(a) Within two years of the entry into force of the Convention for the State Party concerned;
(b) Thereafter every five years.

Article 1

Everyone under 18 years of age has all the rights in this convention

Article 2

You have these rights, whoever you are, whoever your parents are, whatever colour you are, whatever sex or religion you are, whatever language you speak, whether you have a disability, or if you are rich or poor.

Article 3

Whenever an adult has anything to do with you, he or she should do what is best for you.

Article 6

Everyone should recognise that you have the right to live.

Article 7

You have the right to have a name, and when you are born your name, your parents’ names and the date should be written down. You have the right to a nationality, and the right to know and be cared for by your parents.

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Before you set up a day care programme, certain requirements for its successful operation must be established. These include:

• A knowledge of what a day care centre can do to help the development of the children who will attend it.

• An understanding of the needs of parents in your particular community for this kind of supplemental child care and of the needs of their children.

• A clearly formulated and agreed-upon statement of purpose.

• A realistic estimate of all expenses necessary for operating the programme according to standards that will assure good care for the children.

• An assured source of funds to equal the estimated expenses.

• A knowledge of the legal requirements for operating a day care centre in your community.

• An administrative body. This may be a department of a public or private agency, an incorporated board of directors, or an individual. The administrative body has the responsibility for financing, for establishing operating policies, for efficient disbursement of funds, and for maintenance of good standards of care.

• Policies for admission of children

• Policies for employment of staff.

• A building (or part of a building) that is safe and has adjacent outdoor play space and sufficient space for classrooms, a kitchen, food storage, toilet and hand-washing facilities, offices, storage of supplies and first-aid equipment.

• Equipment suitable for a day care centre - such items as small tables and chairs, kitchen and toilet room furnishings and installations, office furnishings, cots or mats for resting, educational toys and materials, and outdoor playground apparatus.

• A programme for the whole child - one that uses knowledge from the disciplines of education, health, social work, psychology, and psychiatry, to provide an experience suitable to the age of the child and to his individual needs.

• A staff professionally qualified to plan and carry out such an integrated programme.

• Contacts with other community agencies and institutions to which families can be referred for services not supplied by the day care centre, from which consultation services can be obtained as needed and with which there can be community planning for children and parents.

All of these factors are indispensable to the operation of a programme that really serves children and their families well. If you are about to start a day care centre, do not begin unless you have the assurance that you can fulfill each of the requirements listed above. If you are already operating a day care centre, you are not serving the children well unless all of these requirements are met.