Membership Spotlight highlights the work of our member organisations and outlines how other individuals and NGOs can support them. We are shining the light on UNICEF UK, a long-term committed member of Together.

The UK Committee for UNICEF (UNICEF UK) is one of 33 national committees within UNICEF that work locally to promote and protect the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund, is the world’s leading children’s rights organisation. UNICEF was founded in 1946 to help protect children after World War II and now operates in 190 countries and territories to uphold children’s rights and provide access to healthcare, clean water, education, and safety. UNICEF UK and UNICEF share a vision to build a better world for every child, ensuring that all children here in the UK and worldwide are healthy, educated, and safe.

Our work in Scotland

UNICEF UK was founded in 1956, and our Scotland office was established in 2015. Since then, we have been fundraising to support UNICEF’s development and emergency work and advocating for the protection of the rights of all children’s , both here in Scotland and around the world. In Scotland, we also work with the hospitals where children are born, the schools where they learn and grow, and the communities that shape their lives. At the heart of our work is the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).

We work with the Scottish Government to ensure the rights of children are upheld everywhere. We believe that every child can shape our world, but only when their rights are protected, and they are given the chance to survive, thrive and fulfil their potential. For the past 10 years, we have been working with the Children and Families Directorate to provide technical expertise and share best practice to support the incorporation and implementation of the UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024.

One of the areas where our work has had a big impact is in Scottish schools through our Rights Respecting Schools Award (RRSA) programme. It has been hugely exciting to see the enthusiasm with which schools have signed up. As recently as May 2022, the Scottish Government announced funding for us to offer our RRSA programme to all state primary and secondary schools here. Two years on, an incredible 80% of eligible schools are now participating in the programme, and almost 800 schools have achieved the Silver or Gold stage of the Award.

Time and time again, we have witnessed the generosity of people across Scotland. One stand-out example was back in 2022, when Scotland’s National football team played against Poland as their World Cup play-off semi-final against Ukraine was postponed due to the war. Proceeds from match tickets went towards UNICEF’s work to provide emergency medical services, hygiene kits, safe water and shelter, and psychosocial support for those affected by the conflict in Ukraine, with the total raised reaching a massive £500k. The Scottish Government provided additional funding for our work in Ukraine, and we facilitated a ministerial visit to one of our Blue Dot hubs in June that year.

Our work in sport and children’s rights

For more than 10 years, UNICEF UK has been working in the area of sport and children’s rights. In fact, it all began with the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, which saw UNICEF partner with Glasgow 2014 in order to achieve a groundbreaking ambition: to transform children’s lives by reaching children in every part of Scotland, and in every Commonwealth country before the next edition of the Commonwealth Games came around. This was the first time in history that a global organisation dedicated to transforming children’s lives teamed up with a global sporting institution to deliver change on an international level. As a result of this partnership, more than 540,000 children across all regions of Scotland were positively impacted, and £6.5million was raised for programmes which reached more than 11.7million children in all 52 countries of the Commonwealth.

We have taken a three-pillar approach to our work in this area, focussing on children’s rights in, around, and through sport.

Our work in sport has been to ensure that children’s rights are respected and protected while playing sport. To this end, we have been active in a range of ways: having been one of the founders of the International Safeguards for Children in Sport; worked alongside FIFA to develop the FIFA Guardians programme; and developed the ‘Children before Players’ guidance for professional football clubs.

Around sport refers to our work to ensure children connected to Mega Sporting Events have their rights respected, which has involved partnering with international federations such as Commonwealth Sport to support them to deliver positive impacts for children as far back as the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, and as recently as Birmingham 2022; working on the international standard on event sustainability, ISO 20121, to ensure event organisers consider human and child rights throughout the planning, delivery, and legacy of their events; and developing guidance around child-friendly remedy mechanisms.

Finally, through sport refers to maximising the potential of safe sport as a platform for change, which includes working with UNICEF UK partnerships to help deliver UNICEF’s sport for development projects across the globe.

As mentioned earlier – and as we’re all aware – Scotland recently committed to incorporating children’s rights into domestic law. The Act will require every public authority in Scotland to comply with the UNCRC and take proactive steps to ensure the protection of children’s rights. UNICEF UK’s Child Rights and Sport, Safeguarding and Participation Team is keen to utilise our knowledge and expertise in the area of sport, in particular, to support sport bodies and other relevant organisations to implement the Act. We are very aware of the myriad of brilliant organisations already at work in Scotland, and hope to work with them  to identify any gaps where we might play a role. We look forward to keeping the Together Scotland network informed about opportunities to collaborate as we move forward.

To read more on Unicef UK’s work on children’s rights and sport, visit our webpage.

Sign-Up and Become a Together Member (Individual or Organisational)

• Would you like to find out further information about joining Together’s Membership?  Then visit our website page ‘Become a Member’ for further information.
• Are you a Together organisational member and would like to collaborate for a Membership Spotlight? Email: caitlin@togetherscotland.org.uk

#RightsOnTrack

• Our #RightsOnTrack campaign will provide you more about our campaign and register to our mailing list.

Donate To Us Today!

Donate to Together and help us to promote children’s rights in Scotland and improve the lives of all babies, children and young people.