title: The awareness of primary caregivers in South Africa of the human rights of their children with intellectual disabilities.
abstract: Besides the right to freedom, human rights can be seen as a basic requirement also for the maintenance of human dignity and the opportunity to thrive - particularly in the case of children with disabilities. It is imperative to explore primary caregivers' awareness of the human rights of their children with intellectual disabilities in view of the role they may play in either facilitating or restricting these rights. This paper explores the awareness of 219 primary caregivers of the human rights of their children with intellectual disabilities.
  
  
  
  A descriptive survey design was used with a custom-designed questionnaire that employed a deductive content analysis based on the articles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child. Comparisons were drawn between the awareness of primary caregivers from urban and those from rural areas.
  
  
  
  The majority (85.5%) of participants agreed that their child with intellectual disability had rights. Three broad kinds of right were mentioned (in descending order): provision rights, protection rights and participation rights. Participants from both urban and rural areas mentioned education (a provision right) most frequently. However, participants from urban areas were more aware of the different rights that existed than were their counterparts from rural areas.
  
  
  
  Primary caregivers in both rural and urban areas are aware of the rights of their children with disabilities, although there are significant differences between them.
authors.affiliation: School of Health Sciences, CHILD Research Group, Jönköping, Sweden. karina.huus@ju.se.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Huus
authors.affiliation: Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dada
authors.affiliation: Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bornman
authors.affiliation: School of Health Sciences, CHILD Research Group, Jönköping, Sweden.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lygnegård
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D002669:Child Welfare; D006233:Persons with Disabilities; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006806:Human Rights; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D008875:Middle Aged; D012424:Rural Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013019:South Africa; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
keywords: children's rights; disability; parent perceptions; participation rights; protection rights; provision rights