International Human Rights Day – and the five practice shifts

On 10 December we observed International Human Rights Day, which commemorates the anniversary of one of the world’s most important global pledges: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).

Human rights can empower individuals and communities to work together towards a better future for all, and this includes children. The 2024 theme was ‘Our Rights, Our Future, Right Now’, which focused on human rights as a pathway to solutions, and how they play a critical role as a preventative, protective and transformative force for good.

We invite you to engage children as partners in practice as an important consideration of their rights, voices and diversity. Collaborative practice with children happens where practitioners work in a way that reflects children as being genuine participative partners in the decisions that affect them. This begins with a shift from passive to active; from seeing children as innocent, vulnerable and passive to regarding them as active participants in shaping their own lives. This is the first of five key practice perspective shifts that can be taken up by practitioners who want to prioritise children’s ability to tell their stories in their own ways, using their own language.

Read more about all five practice shifts and think about practice changes you could make to engage with children in ways that promote positive mental health, while supporting their rights to be heard, be safe and be well.