Submitted by crinadmin on
Summary: One of the key differences between the
CRC and other treaties is that it
recognizes that rights must be actively
promoted if they are going to be
enforced.People who know their rights
are better able to claim them, and
Article 42 imposes a responsibility on
governments to make the CRC widely
known to adults and children alike.
1. INTRODUCTION: INVESTING IN THE FUTURE
Humankind owes the child "the best it has to give".
1959 UN Declaration of the Rights of the Child
To guarantee the human rights of children is to invest in the future.
Children's rights are the building blocks for a solid human rights
culture, the basis for securing human rights for future generations.
As human beings, children are entitled to all the rights guaranteed
by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the various
treaties that have developed from it. But children also need special
protection and care. They must be able to depend on the adult world
to take care of them, to defend their rights and to help them to
develop and realize their potential. Governments pay almost universal
lip service to this ideal, yet have signally failed to ensure that
the rights of children are respected.
Children suffer many of the same human rights abuses as adults, but
may also be targeted simply because they are dependent and
vulnerable. Children are tortured and mistreated by state officials;
they are detained, lawfully or arbitrarily, often in appalling
conditions; in some countries they are subjected to the death
penalty. Countless thousands are killed or maimed in armed conflicts;
many more have fled their homes to become refugees. Children forced
by poverty or abuse to live on the streets are sometimes detained,
attacked and even killed in the name of social cleansing. Many
millions of children work at exploitative or hazardous jobs, or are
the victims of child trafficking and forced prostitution. Because
children are "easy targets", they are sometimes threatened, beaten or
raped in order to punish family members who are not so accessible.
The international community has long recognized the need to protect
children from such abuses. The 1959 UN Declaration of the Rights of
the Child set out 10 principles which provided a powerful moral
framework for children's rights, but which were not legally
enforceable. The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) was
adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1989, and entered into force
the following year. Since then, the CRC has been ratified by every
single UN member state in the world, except Somalia -- which has had
no central government able to do so for many years -- and the United
States of America (USA).
The CRC elaborates rights according to the special needs and
perspectives of the child. It is the only human rights treaty that
covers the full spectrum of civil, political, economic, social and
cultural rights, stressing their indivisible and interdependent
relationship. By virtue of its comprehensive nature and near-
universal ratification, the CRC stands as a landmark for the
international consensus on the basic principles of the universality
and indivisibility of all human rights.
According to the CRC, every human being under the age of 18 is a
child, unless majority is attained earlier under national law. This
stipulation poses important challenges for the application of the
CRC, especially in countries where the age of majority is linked to
puberty, often different for boys and girls. Under the CRC, all
states are required to establish a minimum age of criminal
responsibility, which according to The Beijing Rules1, should "not be
fixed at too low an age level, bearing in mind the facts of
emotional, mental and intellectual maturity".
And even though a state may set the age of criminal responsibility
below 18, the rights in the CRC still apply, especially those
governing the child's treatment at the hands of law enforcement and
judicial authorities.
One of the guiding principles of the CRC is that the "best interests
of the child" should be a primary consideration in all decisions or
procedures related to the child. Children have the right to be heard
and to have their own opinions on matters affecting them taken into
account, "in accordance with the age and maturity of the child". Very
young children rely on others to express their views and protect
their best interests; as they grow older, they become more and more
able to speak for themselves and to engage in decision-making on
their own behalf.
It is up to governments to ensure that all children enjoy their
rights. No child should suffer discrimination. The rights of the CRC
apply regardless of "race, colour, sex, language, religion, political
or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property,
disability, birth or other status". The essential message is equality
of opportunity. Girls should be given the same opportunities as boys.
Poor children, disabled children, refugee children, children of
indigenous or minority groups should have the same rights as all
others, the same opportunities to learn, to grow, to enjoy an
adequate standard of living.
The rights contained in the CRC fall into four broad categories:
· subsistence rights, including the rights to food, shelter and
health care;
· development rights, which allow children to reach their fullest
potential, including education and freedom of thought, conscience and
religion;
· protection rights, such as the right to life, and to protection
from abuse, neglect or exploitation;
· participation rights, which allow children to take an active role
in community and political life.
One of the key differences between the CRC and other treaties is that
it recognizes that rights must be actively promoted if they are going
to be enforced.
People who know their rights are better able to claim them, and
Article 42 imposes a responsibility on governments to make the CRC
widely known to adults and children alike.
The CRC deals not just with child rights, but with the responsibility
of the child to respect the rights of others in their family and
community. It recognizes that all children should be able to grow up
in a happy and loving family environment, and stipulates that the
family has a duty to help children understand both their rights and
their responsibilities, in order to prepare them to live "in the
spirit of peace, dignity, tolerance, freedom, equality and
solidarity".
While the CRC emphasizes that the family is the natural environment
for nurturing the child, it places the primary obligation on the
state to protect children from all forms of abuse, neglect and
exploitation, even where these are not carried out directly by state
agents. In this way, the CRC challenges the traditional perception
that states are not responsible for abuses committed within the
family or the community. Domestic violence, bonded child labour or
child prostitution, for instance, are usually perpetrated by private
individuals, but governments can be held accountable for failing in
their responsibility to protect children from such abuses.
Implementation of the CRC is overseen by the Committee on the Rights
of the Child. The Committee comprises 10 experts "of high moral
standing and recognized competence in the field".2 They are elected
by secret ballot of all state parties to the CRC, each of which may
nominate one national expert. Because the CRC is so wide-ranging,
covering social policy as well as law, the Committee usually includes
people from a wide variety of professional backgrounds, such as human
rights and international law, juvenile justice, social work,
medicine, journalism and governmental and non-governmental work.
Governments are obliged to report to the Committee within two years
of the treaty coming into effect in their country, specifying the
steps taken to bring national laws, policy and practice into line
with the principles of the CRC. The Committee examines the facts and
hears a wide range of evidence relevant to the government's report,
often from non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and meets with each
government to discuss its child rights record. The Committee advises
governments on the implementation of the CRC, and engages them in
substantive policy discussions on the resolution of specific
children's rights issues.
At the end of the process, the Committee adopts "concluding
observations", which provide a series of recommendations on how
states can improve their implementation of the provisions of the CRC.
Governments must submit progress reports every five years.
The only regional treaty on children's human rights, the African
Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (the African
Children's Charter), was adopted by the Organization of African Unity
in 1990. The African Children's Charter is rooted in other human
rights treaties, such as the UDHR and CRC, but it emerges out of the
social and cultural values of Africa, including those relating to
family, community and society. In some respects, the African
Children's Charter strengthens the protections afforded by the CRC:
it stipulates that everyone below the age of 18 is a child, without
exception; it enjoins states parties not to recruit children to
military service; and internally displaced children are accorded the
same rights as refugees. In addition, the African Children's Charter
seeks to eliminate harmful social and cultural practices, in
particular those that are discriminatory or that put the health of
the child at risk.
AI's work on children
AI has often highlighted individual cases of children who have been
the victims of human rights violations such as torture, ill-treatment
or extrajudicial execution. But too often, AI's work on children has
been incidental to its core research and campaigning. As a result,
children have often been invisible in AI's coverage of human rights
violations in the adult sphere. In recent years, AI's membership
forums have recognized the need for AI to increase its work on
children and adapt its research and campaigning strategy so that we
can play a wider and more constructive role in promoting and
protecting children's rights. In the process, AI is hoping to forge
closer links with other institutions and NGOs working in this field.
Guided by the framework of the CRC, AI is seeking to develop its work
on children around three key themes: juvenile justice; children in
armed conflict; and children in the community and family. By
concentrating our efforts on these areas, which combine our
traditional strengths with new fields of work, we can develop our
work in a holistic way and address abuses across a range of social
and economic, as well as civil and political, rights.
Although the CRC provides a comprehensive baseline for children's
rights, AI will continue to remind states of their obligations under
other human rights treaties to protect the rights of the child. In so
doing, it hopes to engage other children's rights organization in
concerted action in support of human rights protection more
generally. The CRC may be the most widely ratified human rights
treaty in the world, but it is still a long, long way from universal
acceptance to universal observance. Enunciating and confirming
children's rights is no more than a first step; we must work to
ensure that these rights are enforced.