Redbridge Council celebrates children’s rights with “Rights Week 2024”

Redbridge Council, with partner organisations, is celebrating Rights Week this April, by providing education sessions to hundreds of local children so they know and understand their fundamental rights as children. Children’s rights are enshrined in law and Rights Week aims to bring them to the forefront of local people’s minds, to help everyone in the community to uphold them and support our children.

This is part of the work we’re undertaking towards becoming a UNICEF Child Friendly Community, under the UK Committee for UNICEF (UNICEF UK) Child Friendly Cities & Communities programme.

Children’s rights include things often taken for granted such as the right to education, the right to protection from child exploitation and child labour, and the right to privacy, but there are other rights that exemplify childhood that are also enshrined in the convention. These include the right to play, to rest, to leisure and to have their voices heard. 

In truly hearing young people’s voices and opinions, Redbridge Council now routinely includes children in local decision-making. We’ve asked local children to help draft a new policy on young people’s mental health, so we can understand what things impact their mental health, and what support and services they may need. We’ve installed play equipment in town centres, chosen by children, to make their borough more physically welcoming and visibly child friendly. Young people have worked with architects to design hubs in town centres, which take into account their views on maintaining privacy from the street, including spaces inside that are just for young people, and decorating them in ways to make them feel genuinely welcome. 

Colin Stewart, Operational Director for Education and Inclusion said: “In Redbridge we take children’s rights seriously. This goes further than ensuring our children have a safe existence in their world, and where they are treated fairly. Working towards recognition as a UNICEF Child Friendly Community has prompted us to bring children’s rights into the heart of local decisions, so we can develop all our services, and even the physical infrastructure of our borough, so they work for children. 

“We have a growing number of schools which are now officially accredited with UNICEF Rights Respecting Schools status, and we are immensely proud of what this means for the children in our borough. Our children are learning about their rights, about how they should be treated, and are in turn learning about how they can stand up for their rights. We are listening carefully to children’s voices and working with them to create a future Redbridge that’s a respectful and vibrant place for all children to live in, play in and in which to get an excellent education.” 

Recognition as a UNICEF Child Friendly City or Community is the final stage of the Child Friendly Cities & Communities journey. It signifies that UNICEF publicly recognises that a council and its local partners have taken significant and sustainable steps towards advancing the human rights of children and young people growing up in their city or community.

Redbridge Council hopes to become the first official UNICEF Child Friendly Community in England.