Everyone has rights and there are a lot of laws in place to protect your rights. This sections gives you some more information on the main ways you are kept safe through the law.

The Human Rights Act

This short film from the British Institute of Human Rights has been developed to help children and young people understand their human rights and what to do if they are not respected.

It has been launched in conjunction with an interactive e-Book: Getting with the Act: Our Human Rights Act.

Convention on the Rights of the Child

There are additional rights for children and young people which are written in the ‘Convention on the Rights of the Child’. This is an agreement written by the member countries of United Nations about the rights of children and young people. We will call it ‘CRC’ for short.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has produced a series of visual factsheet about the CRC:

About the CRC

Who's who?

How it works

The CRC in the UK

Get involved

 

The Equality Act 2010

This guide gives you more information about the Equality Act 2010 and explains what you can do if you think it is not being followed properly.

The Disability Rights UK’s Right to Participate website aims to increase awareness of the Equality Act, especially the ways it can protect disabled people from discrimination in everyday situations.

Download an easy read guide on the Equality Act (pdf)

 

Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities

The Convention is a new international human rights agreement that:

  • recognises that we are all equal. Disabled people have the same rights as everyone else to freedom, respect, equality and dignity.

  • brings together all our basic human rights in one place

  • describes what government has agreed to do to make these rights real

This guide, written by one of the legacy organisations of DR UK for the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), aims to explain:

  • What your human rights are and how they are protected.

  • What difference the Convention could make to your life.

  • How you can be involved in putting the Convention into practice.

  • How you can use the Convention to challenge injustice and improve services.

There is also an easy read version of the convention and a video in British Sign Language: