Rights for all
All children have the right to reach their full potential, whatever their race, gender, or whether they have a disability or not.
Everybody in the UK is protected by the Equality Act which says that nobody should be treated unfavourably because of their personal characteristics.
And the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child says that no child should be treated differently because of who they are.
To make sure children don’t face discrimination when using services, there are several things organisations can do:
- Make sure their staff know about children’s rights and the Equality Act.
- Consistently think about how their decisions could affect individual groups of children
- Look at if their service helps all groups of young people who need it, and if not, take steps to make it better.
- Give children information in a language or format appropriate to their age and maturity, culture, or disability.
The Equality and Human Rights Council has a free legal advice service to help people who think their rights have been breached –