Children’s Awareness of Their Rights in Ghana: The Case of Junior High School Students in Aburi and Pokrom

Abstract

With the promulgation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in 1989, children are now recognised as active actors and subjects of human rights. The UNCRC mandates all Signatory States to educate their citizenry, including children about children's rights. Ghana is on record for being the first country to ratify the UNCRC and has since harmonised its national laws with the UNCRC. Yet, little is known about the extent to which children in Ghana know about their rights. To ensure effective implementation, respect, and full realisation for children’s rights in Ghana, it is imperative that children who are rights-holders have adequate knowledge about their rights. Employing a qualitative research design, the study explored the knowledge that students in Aburi (a peri-urban community) and Pokrom (a rural community) have about their rights. Using a thematic approach in analysing the data gathered, the findings of this study showed that participants had knowledge about their rights, as majority of them were able to define rights and cited examples of the various categories of rights. The students defined children’s rights as being privileges, freedoms, or entitlements that are conferred on children, and cited examples such as, the right to education, the right to life and the right to medical care. The findings further indicated that the students had more knowledge about their rights to provision and participation than their rights to protection. Additionally, the study revealed that although the students had knowledge about their rights, they had insufficient knowledge about the legal instruments that protect children’s rights, such as, the UNCRC and the Children’s Act of Ghana. The study recommends among other things that the Ghana Education Service (GES) should expand the educational curriculum to cover the teaching of legal instruments that protect the rights of children, such as the UNCRC.