Attainment Target E2.1

In this essay, I will discuss the rights that young people have in Scotland, and the laws that affect us.

The basic human rights are for food, clothing and shelter. These apply to children as well as to adults. In addition, the European Union gives children the right to free education and the right to protection. It also says that children have the right of access to their parents, and that ‘the child’s best interests must be a prime consideration’.

What do these rights mean? Food, clothing and shelter seem obvious enough. By making them rights, we are saying that it is the government’s legal duty to make sure all children have these things.

What about the other rights? We have the right to be educated free of charge. That means, for example, that if you are ill and are off school you have the right to free home tuition.

The right to protection means that we young people have the right to be protected from harm.

There are also special laws that affect young people. As well as the laws that affect everyone, such as those about stealing, murder and so on, some laws only apply to young people. For example, drinking, smoking, driving, having sex, getting married, etc. are only legal at certain ages. For example, I want to drive now, but I can’t till I’m 17. These laws are there to protect us, so that we don’t do harmful things until we’re old enough to know what we’re doing.

Until I looked into this properly, I did not really understand that these rights and laws were to keep us as safe as possible. Now that I know this, it makes me feel much safer.