Our young adviser Chloe’s been volunteering for the charity Homeless Network Scotland since January, and we were lucky to have her make us this video about her experiences. She’s talked to us about what she’s learned, and about the people she’s meant who haven’t had all their human rights met.
And that includes children and young people. Homelessness impacts on a huge range of their human rights, in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and elsewhere.
Like the right to a good enough standard of living, the right to survive and develop, and the right to the best health possible.
UNCRC Article 27
I have the right to have a proper house, food and clothing
UNCRC Article 6
I should be supported to live and grow
UNCRC Article 24
I have the right to good quality health care, to clean water and good food
About the International Day of Charity
When States sign up to international human rights laws, they have a duty to keep the promises they contain.
That means that in the end it’s their duty to keep up the minimum standards set out by those laws― that’s not something that charities should have to do.
But as the UN says, the International Day of Charity celebrates some of what charity does for society:
- it helps people who wouldn’t always meet come together, and get a better understanding of each other’s situations. Through this, it promotes social bonding.
- meeting in this way makes us more aware of each other’s situations and our status as holders of human rights. Because of this, it helps society become more resilient.
- it makes us aware of the rights of marginalised people, and when these aren’t being respected.
And it’s through these we can find it easier to see each other as active holders of human rights, who deserve to have them respected.
Charities help inform the UN’s work
As part of civil society, charities play a key role in telling the UN about whether human rights are being respected in individual countries and across the world.