This research aimed to investigate how children understand their rights and what their perceptions are when faced with situations that represent a violation of these rights. This is a case study type of qualitative research, in which the subjects participating in the research were 16 children (aged 5 - 6 years old) from a pre-school class at a Municipal Education Center. Children's located in the city of Camaragibe-PE. As methodological procedures, conversations, drawings and image analysis were carried out. The collected data was analyzed using content analysis (CA). Regarding the organization of the theoretical body of this research, we initially discuss the social history of childhood, elucidating the concepts of child and childhood based on studies in the Sociology of Childhood (CORSARO, 2011; SARMENTO, 2020). Next, we present an overview of Brazilian legislation that guarantees children's rights, in addition, we discuss the violations of rights that unfortunately still affect our children (BRASIL, 1990; MIRANDA, 2017). Finally, the results of this research indicate that children understand their rights in different ways, attributing new meanings to the term right and escaping legal and adult-centric conceptions. From the children's perspective, the expression right can be related to something positive or negative, in this sense, it can have a character of playfulness, utopia and even the disciplining of bodies. It was also noted that at times there was an intertwining and indistinction between rights and duties on the part of children. Regarding rights violations, this research indicates that the majority of children can identify episodes that represent rights violations and that they are against these forms of violations such as physical punishment, child labor, abandonment and street children. However, there are children who see physical punishment as an educational practice to control unwanted behavior, and there are children who associate child labor with helping with household chores. In this sense, it is suggested that knowledge related to children's rights and the violation of children's rights be worked on effectively in educational institutions from Early Childhood Education onwards, so that there can in fact be training committed to the exercise of citizenship of these subjects in the process. of development.