1. The brilliant thing about children's rights is that they encourage a healthy way of thinking - looking at the world from young people's perspective. It fits a youth work approach and neatly bypasses a lot of the paternalistic or problem-driven views of young people that trouble newspaper pundits and the like. It is not necessary to determine whether young people are a threat to society, a nuisance or desperately in need of protection. They are just citizens, with rights. Put them at the centre and things become a lot clearer.
2. How can you have rights without responsibilities? Easily, when you think about it. Rights have to exist separately from responsibilities, otherwise a baby wouldn't have any rights. Nor would a frail, elderly person who was bedridden and unable to do anything either for themselves or anyone else. That would be daft. Rights don't have to be earned or merited - that's the point of them.
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