Children have a fundamental right to participate in decision making across settings, including physical (Quaye, Coyne, Soderback, 2019) and mental health, family law proceedings (Tisdall, 2016), and educational and local area planning processes (Usher, 2023). However, it is sometimes the case that children experience obstacles, for example when their opinion, wishes and values are not heard and they are not included in decision making processes. For participation to be optimal and meaningful, health and social care professionals—including psychologists—need organisational, social, paediatric and pedagogical competence, critical awareness and reflection, and an openness to change in the practice and culture of service delivery (Quaye, Coyne, Soderback, 2019; Bijleveld, Bunders-Aelen, & Bedding, 2020; Bjønness, Viksveen, Johannessen, & Storm, 2020). Psychologists are increasingly asked to play a role in advancing the human rightsagenda. The APA suggests that we have a responsibility to advocate for the human rights of our patients, clients, students, research participants, and their families and communities of clients, including marginalised populations made vulnerable by societal inequalities (Huminiuk, 2023). As rights-based and person-centred paradigms become more central to our profession, there is a growing need to learn about human rights and how to integrate rights-based approaches with practice. In the Rep. of Ireland, rights-based practice is particularly important to children’s well-being and the protection of their right to the highest standard of health. Recently, the PSI explicitly stated that ‘children and young people who attend specialist mental health services … have the right to expect safe and effective support in a timely manner with their rights and needs at the centre of that care’ (PSI Statement, 2023). More than ever, psychologists are being asked to implement a rights-based approach for children— one that integrates equality, equity or even freedom from discrimination to the implementation and evaluation of mental health programmes (e.g. Mental Health Commission, 2023). In this article, we focus on legal frameworks and principles helpful to the implementation of children’s participation rights. We set out some practical ways for psychologists to start engaging with, or reflecting on, rights-based approaches in theory and practice.