‘Children’s Rights – Embedding children’s rights in everyday practice’

Children’s Rights are prominent in the world of early childhood care and education. There is strong recognition that children’s voices should be heard and that children should have a say and have some power to contribute and shape their world. Children’s Rights are also in the media with a Constitutional Amendment on this topic expected this year.

This year the Spring Roadshow supported Early Childhood Members in exploring and considering the topic of Children’s Rights in light of beliefs and current practices.

The Roadshows aimed to address the following issues:

• What are Children’s Rights and how do you support them in daily practice?

• Are you building on the Aistear framework which promotes a rights based approach in curriculum?

• Are you working to Sìolta Standards which considers the opportunities you provide to enable children make choices and participate in the life of the service?

• Are you meeting the requirements of Regulation 5 in promoting children’s rights?

Campaign for Children

Early Childhood Ireland collaborated with Campaign for Children on the Spring 2012 Roadshow. 

Campaign for Children is a public education campaign, dedicated to raising awareness of children’s rights issues in Ireland. The campaign’s aim is to see an Ireland in which children are heard and childhood is cherished. The support of the public will be crucial in order to make this happen.

Central to Campaign for Children’s focus in the coming months will be Ireland’s lack of statutory child protection laws and the fact that children’s best interests are not prioritised when decisions are made that affect them.

Those interested in joining this growing campaign can sign up online here – www.campaignforchildren.ie.