Each secondary school in South Africa is legally obliged to establish a representative council of learners, a democratically elected, learner-only council. This article looks at how the representative councils of learners are realised in practice in four secondary schools. Three research questions focus on the practice of representative councils of learners, how they engage with learner rights and the role adults play in mediating representative councils of learners. The article explores whether representative councils of learners are spaces where learners actively pursue rights agendas where inequalities and injustices exist. It adds to a body of work exploring the enactment of the "United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child" and Constitution in South Africa and explores the complexity of schooling relations which shape their potential.