Today you open a real international agreement written for people your age. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) protects the rights of everyone under 18. By the end of this period you will read one article closely enough to say who holds the right and who has to make it real.

Ireland has ratified the UNCRC. That promise is real, but it is not the same as every local rule changing overnight. The articles set out what governments have agreed to protect and work towards.

Turn to the person beside you for thirty seconds: in one plain sentence, what does it mean that Ireland has ratified the UNCRC?

Here is Article 12, the article you will work on next:

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.

Three phrases in it need plain words. States Parties means the countries that have joined the Convention. Judicial and administrative proceedings means court cases and official decisions. Due weight means the child's views actually count, shaped by age and maturity.

Article 12 of the UNCRC is below in full. Place each label on the short phrase it fits, not on a whole paragraph.

Talk these through as a class:

• Where did most of you agree on the labels?
• Where did you differ from the model, and does your reading still stand up against the wording?
• In your own words, who holds the right in Article 12, and who owes the duty?

You can now say what the UNCRC is for, and read one article closely enough to name who holds the right and who owes the duty. You have seen that a convention is a real promise by countries, and that Article 12 requires the child's views to be heard and given due weight, according to age and maturity, in decisions that affect them. Next you will set the UNCRC beside two other major human rights documents and see what job each one does.