First Children's Rights Scheme: child friendly version

1. Introduction

What are children’s human rights?

Children’s human rights are written down in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). The UNCRC is an important agreement between lots of countries who have made a promise to protect children’s rights.

The UNCRC says:

• all children and young people under 18 years old have children’s rights;
• adults must do what is best for children;
• children should be supported to live and grow; and
• children have the right to be listened to and taken seriously.

The UNCRC also explains what adults, governments and public authorities (like schools, councils and health services) should do to protect children’s rights. You can find out more about the rights in the UNCRC on the website of the Children and Young People's Commissioner Scotland.

A group of experts called the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (UN Committee) helps countries to think about what more they could do to protect children’s rights.

Scotland’s UNCRC Act

In July 2024, the UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act became the law in Scotland. The new law is called the UNCRC Act for short. This means that rights from the UNCRC are now part of the law of Scotland.

The UNCRC Act says that the Scottish Government and public authorities must listen to children and protect their rights when making decisions.

Children and young people can already ask for help from public authorities if they are worried about their rights. The UNCRC Act now also means they can ask a court to help if they think their rights are not being respected when they are receiving some services.

What is the Children’s Rights Scheme?

The UNCRC Act says that the Scottish Government must write a report called a Children’s Rights Scheme, or Scheme for short. The Scheme must say what the Scottish Government is doing, or plans to do, to help all children in Scotland to experience their rights.

This report explains what the Scheme says about some of those plans, in a way that is easier for children and young people to read. In the next part of this report, we’ll explain more about some of the things that the Scheme says the Scottish Government will do to support children’s rights in Scotland.

The actions in the Scheme have been designed to be in place for at least 3 years.

Who helped the Scottish Government to write the Scheme?

The UNCRC Act says that we must listen to the views of children and young people and certain children’s rights organisations when developing the Scheme.

As well as children and young people, we also listened to the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland, the Scottish Human Rights Commission and other children’s rights organisations when we were thinking about what to include in the Scheme.

You can read what children and young people told us in this report, which also includes a section that explains how we’ve responded.