Your role is key to the advancement of children’s rights all over the world. The UN was formed to bring all nations together to work towards international peace and security. Part of the core aims of the UN is to promote human rights around the world. People all over the world need the UN and its agencies to conduct open and transparent dialogues to progress human rights, and hold countries to account when they fail in their human rights obligations.
Children have human rights too. Not because they are “the future” or the “adults of tomorrow, but because they are human beings today. This means that all human rights laws and instruments, and all UN bodies apply equally to children. It is not just up to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Committee on the Rights of the Child.
Nevertheless, children’s rights do not get enough attention at the UN. Nearly a third of the world’s population is under 18, and everyone was a child once. Yet only one day a year is dedicated to children’s rights, and CRIN’s research shows that UN human rights mechanisms, specifically the Universal Periodic Review, so often fail to consider children’s rights.
We want a world where governments and societies view and treat children as rights holders - not simply as “the future” in need of protection and charity, or merely an extension of their parents. We want to work with the UN and its agencies to achieve this goal. Please email us for further information or advice, as well as to give us feedback on our work and how we can better help you protect and promote children’s rights.
Resources for you
Below are some children’s rights resources tailored to people who work within the UN. We are developing more all the time, and updating and adding to existing resources. Please email us with your feedback on these, as well as suggestions for further resources we could look to produce.