Article 12
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Article 12 was a youth-led children's rights organisation based in England. Its main aim was to ensure the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child UNCRC in the United Kingdom which states;
1. States Parties shall assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child, the views of the child being given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child.
2. For this purpose, the child shall in particular be provided the opportunity to be heard in any judicial and administrative proceedings affecting the child, either directly, or through a representative or an appropriate body, in a manner consistent with the procedural rules of national law'
The group was run by a steering committee and used advocacy, participation and consultation to ensure the rights of young people were heard by decision makers.
The group's most high profile campaigns included 'Stop Smacking Us' (challenging Reasonable Chastisement) when it led a rally in Westminster to 10 Downing Street with 100 children. Its members have represented the United Kingdom at several United Nation's sessions. In 1999 Daisy Thomas and David Joseph Henry took part in 10th commemorative meeting of the UNCRC in Geneva. In 2001 James Anderson and Lucy Mason took part in the Special Session on Children in New York. Many of its key members have gone on to become Human Rights activists.
This organisation is no longer active.
