You work with some of the most vulnerable people. Survivors of child sexual abuse and other violence; those experiencing difficult circumstances in their family; children in conflict with the law; refugee and displaced children; and many more. You will help these children when they need you the most. Your job is extremely important not only to the children you support, but to their families, communities and wider society.
By infusing children’s rights across your work, you can have a profound impact on a child’s life and their ability to enjoy their human rights and respect the rights of others. Children do need protection, but it is also vital for their development that they can enjoy their other rights too. Children’s freedom of expression, right to be heard, privacy and access to information are all key in your work with them.
We want a world where governments and societies view and treat children as rights holders - not simply as “the future” in need of protection and charity, or merely an extension of their parents. We want to work with social workers to achieve this goal. Please email us for further information or advice, as well as to give us feedback on our work and how we can better help you protect and promote children’s rights.
Resources for you
We have produced a guide to applying a rights based approach to children for social workers. A rights based approach comes from the notion that children are rights holders, and that for real change to happen the focus must be on promoting and protecting their rights - not just treating them as objects of charity. The guide for social workers includes a breakdown of how the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) applies to your work with children, such as rights based advice on protection from violence, juvenile justice, drug misuse and more. It is not designed to tell you how to do your job, but rather to give you the tools to understand how children’s rights fit into it.
Below are some additional children’s rights resources tailored to social workers. We are developing more all the time, and updating and adding to existing resources. Please email us with your feedback on these, as well as suggestions for further resources we could look to produce.