Today marks World Children’s Day, otherwise known as ‘Universal Children’s Day’. This follows a UNICEF initiative, established to focus and promote the rights of children as outlined in the United Nations Convention on the Right of the Child. This year is the 31st anniversary since the Convention was first established and the theme of this year’s World Children’s Day is “investing in our future means investing in our children”. This aims to focus on improving children’s rights where they are currently disregarded and promotes active listening to understand children and include their priorities in our action for the future.
The Convention contains 54 articles of equal importance which apply to every child. The articles require action from adults and governments to ensure its objectives are being met. UNICEF’s examples of these articles include every child’s right to:
- Be safe from violence (Article 19)
- An education (Article 28)
- Sufficient standard of living (Article 27)
- Health and health services (Article 24)
What can I do to take part in this year’s World Children’s Day?
In line with this year’s theme focusing on the future, UNICEF has set out suggestions of how to get involved and play your part in World Children’s Day. These include dedicating time to discussing with your children some aspects they may wish to change about the world, or what changes they would like to see when they grow up.
This may include conversations on relevant topics such as climate change, and what their thoughts are. This could be done by creating a vision board or a drawing to see how they envision their ideas. For more suggestions on how to get involved, you may wish to visit World Children's Day Toolkit.
Understanding parental responsibility and our role in promoting children’s rights
As a law firm specialising in children-related matters, the primary starting point for adults in understanding their duties towards children is being aware of parental responsibility.
What is parental responsibility?
Parental responsibility encompasses the legal rights, duties, and responsibilities that a parent has for a child. Mothers automatically have parental responsibility from birth and fathers can gain these rights via numerous methods, usually by being married to the mother at the time, or by being named on the birth certificate.
The range of legal duties and rights include, but are not limited to, providing a home for your child, choosing and providing a child’s education, protecting the child and agreeing to the child’s medical treatment.
Parental responsibility usually remains in place until a child reaches the age of eighteen. However, there are circumstances where parental responsibility may end earlier.
Parental responsibility allows you to make day to day decisions for the child. However, it does not give someone a right to spend time with the child if they do not live with them. However, where those with parental rights do not live together, the other parent must be consulted when making important decisions about the child’s life.
Surrogacy
Where a child is born through a surrogacy arrangement, the surrogate mother is automatically the child’s legal mother at birth, whether genetically related or not. This remains the case unless this is altered via court order. These court orders are known as “parental orders”, and these allow the commissioning parent/s of the surrogacy arrangement to obtain parental responsibility. The surrogate mother must agree with the order being made.
Adoption
Adoption is an example of when an individual other than a parent can acquire parental responsibility for a child. When a child is adopted by married parents, the adoptive parents obtain parental responsibility for the adopted child. The child is then treated as if they had been born to the married parents. The child’s parents will no longer have parental responsibility, nor any other individuals, as this will have been relinquished by the adoption arrangement.
How can Tozers help?
If you disagree over the responsibility of a child, or wish to apply for parental responsibility, have any questions concerning surrogacy or adoption, our Family Law specialists are here to listen and assist. For more information about any part of this article or to talk to the team.
