{"id":1650,"date":"2024-11-20T11:05:05","date_gmt":"2024-11-20T11:05:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/participation\/?p=1650"},"modified":"2024-11-27T16:18:17","modified_gmt":"2024-11-27T16:18:17","slug":"world-childrens-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/participation\/2024\/11\/20\/world-childrens-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Minister for Children, Young People and the Promise: Happy World Children\u2019s Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Children and Young People of Scotland,<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Natalie Don-Innes MSP<\/p><\/div>\n

I am writing to you on World Children\u2019s Day to tell you about our work this year to help make Scotland the best place for children to grow up. I also want to thank you, the children and young people of Scotland, for the important contributions that you make to our work.<\/p>\n

World Children\u2019s Day celebrates the adoption of a document called the 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\u2019s rights. This year, the theme of World Children\u2019s Day is \u201cListen to the future. Stand up for children\u2019s rights\u201d.<\/p>\n

This year has been a very important year for children\u2019s rights in Scotland. On 16 July 2024, we introduced a new law in Scotland \u2013 the UNCRC Act. This new law gives you – children in Scotland – protections for your rights that are not available in other parts of the UK.<\/p>\n

The Scottish Government and public authorities do a lot of work that directly affects children\u2019s daily lives. For example, this includes work connected to schools, health services, libraries and youth clubs. This Act will help to make sure that your rights are protected in these important areas. The Act also lets you, and the adults who support you, ask the courts to help if your rights are not respected.<\/p>\n

Now that the UNCRC Act is in place, it is more important than ever that you know about and understand your rights, and we will help you with this. For example, we gave money to UNICEF UK to help more schools in Scotland to take part in their Rights Respecting Schools Award programme. This programme helps children and teachers to understand children\u2019s rights. We are also helping the people who work in public authorities to understand how they can respect, protect and fulfil children\u2019s rights.<\/p>\n

Today we published a new report<\/a>. This report gives you more information about what the Scottish Government has been doing to help make sure that children and young people in Scotland can understand and experience your rights. We also published a child-friendly version<\/a> of this report.<\/p>\n

The Scottish Government wants to continue to put your rights at the heart of everything that it does. This includes our policies that affect children\u2019s daily lives, including their health and education. It also includes our other work to help children\u2019s families and communities. In March 2024, we published a report to explain how our plans and policies are supporting children’s rights<\/a>. A child-friendly version<\/a> of the report was also published. The report explains how we are:<\/p>\n