Human Rights
Senior 3 · English
Human Rights
Lesson 1 of 5
25 min
Let's begin
You have rights that no one gave you and no one can take away, simply because you are a human being. As a child, you also have rights to special protection. This lesson explains where those rights come from, what they are, and, most importantly, what to do when a child is not safe. Read it as an informative text: notice how each paragraph answers one question.
An information article. The dates and articles come from the United Nations, UNICEF and the African Union; the helplines from the Rwanda Investigation Bureau.
1 On 10 December 1948, in Paris, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The world had just come through a war in which millions of people had been killed and treated as if their lives were worth nothing. The Declaration's first article answered that horror in one sentence: "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights." Human rights are universal, because they belong to everyone; and they are inalienable, because they cannot be sold, given away or taken away. They include the right to life, liberty and security, equality before the law, freedom of thought and expression, and the rights to education, work and health.
2 Children are human beings, so all these rights are theirs. But children depend on adults, and adults do not always act in their interests. That is why the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989, and why African states adopted the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child in 1990. The Convention defines a child as any person under the age of 18.
3 Four ideas run through the whole Convention. No child may be treated unfairly because of who they are, where they come from, whether they are a boy or a girl, or whether they have a disability. In every decision that affects a child, adults must think first about what is best for that child. Every child has the right to life and to grow up healthy. And children have the right to give their views on matters that affect them, and to be taken seriously.
4 Child protection means keeping children safe from harm. Abuse can be physical (hitting, burning, beating), emotional (constant insults, threats or humiliation), or sexual. Any sexual contact between an adult and a child is abuse and a crime. It does not matter whether the child is said to have agreed, and it is never the child's fault. Children must also be protected from neglect, when the people responsible for them fail to give them food, care, medical treatment or schooling, and from work that is dangerous or that stops them going to school.
5 If you, or a friend, are not safe, you do not have to deal with it alone. Tell an adult you trust: a parent, a teacher, the school counsellor, a health worker or a local leader. If you cannot, or if nobody acts, call one of the free lines of the Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB): 116 to report child abuse, 3512 to report domestic or gender-based violence, 3029 for the Isange One Stop Centre, or 166 in an emergency. If a friend tells you about abuse, listen, believe them, and help them to tell an adult. Do not promise to keep it secret: a secret like that keeps the harm going.
6 Rights come with responsibilities. Your right to be heard comes with a duty to listen. Your right to education comes with a duty to let others learn. Rights are strongest where everyone defends other people's rights as well as their own.
Important
If a child is not safe: free lines of the Rwanda Investigation Bureau
| Line | For |
|---|---|
| 116 | reporting child abuse |
| 3512 | reporting domestic or gender-based violence |
| 3029 | the Isange One Stop Centre: medical, psychological and legal help in one place |
| 166 | emergencies, or sharing information about a crime |
You can also tell a parent, a teacher, the school counsellor, a health worker or a local leader. Telling is not "getting someone into trouble": it is getting a child out of it.
Definition
Glossary
Paragraph 3 describes the Convention's guiding ideas. Its rights themselves are often grouped like this:
| Verb | Noun | Adjective | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| protect | protection | protective | Children need special protection. |
| discriminate | discrimination | discriminatory | Discrimination against girls is forbidden. |
| abuse | abuse | abusive | Abuse must be reported to 116. |
| violate | violation | — | Child labour is a violation of children's rights. |
| — | equality | equal | All people are equal before the law. |
| — | responsibility | responsible | Parents are responsible for their children's care. |
| Collocation | Example |
|---|---|
| have the right to + noun / verb | Every child has the right to education. · You have the right to be heard. |
| respect / defend / violate rights | Bullying violates a pupil's right to feel safe. |
| protect someone from something | The law protects children from harmful work. |
| report something to someone | She reported the abuse to her teacher. |
| be entitled to | Every child is entitled to free primary education. |
Worked example
Working out "inalienable" (paragraph 1)
Worked example
Choosing the word form
Complete: Refusing a girl a place in the football team because she is a girl is ___ (discriminate).
Warning
What are the universal human rights?, a TED-Ed lesson by Benedetta Berti (about 5 minutes). Note how the video explains why the Declaration was written, and compare it with paragraph 1 of the article.
Practice
Sources and credits
Written by Ganzaa.
