UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child (or the UNCRC) are the rights of all children young people in the world including Article 2 that is about discrimination.

Article 2 of the UNCRC says that all children and young people should not be discriminated against.  This includes any kind of

• sexism
• racism
• sectarianism
• homophobia
• transphobia
• discrimination against the disabled.

Discrimination can be direct and indirect

• Direct discrimination happens when a person is treated differently because of the way they are— such as if someone doesn’t get a job because of their gender, or isn’t treated equally because of their race.

• Indirect discrimination happens when a rule applies to everyone in the same way, but affects some people unfairly. For example, if there was a rule that nobody who went to an after school club would have transport provided for them, this would have more negative effects on young people with limited mobility.

Check out the Children and Young People’s Commissioner website for Scotland to find out more about the UNCRC on this page here they explain all 42 articles in a simplified way.