What are Child Rights?

Everyone has the same human rights! Children and young people do, too, but they need special care and protection. In 1989 – more than 20 years ago – the leaders of the world decided to write a United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). It is the international agreement that has been signed by all countries, except for one. That is a record, because no other UN Convention has so many signatories and supporters.

According the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) everyone under the age of 18 is considered a child, and it outlines a number of special rights for children based on four principles:

The UNCRC is a promise by governments around the world to ensure all these rights are fulfilled, promoted and protected so it is your national government who is responsible for this. All these rights are closely linked to each other and cannot be seen as separate. No one right is more important than another.

Maybe you think that all those things are normal for you, but then you’re quite lucky!

Indeed, today, even though the Convention has been around for over 20 years, many children still don’t have all those rights: 75 million children are still not in school; 24,000 children under five will die today of preventable diseases like pneumonia and diarrhoea. In many countries children don’t even have a birth certificate, which means they can’t access health or education services, or prove that they are too young to work or be forced into marriage.

Almost all the countries in the world have ratified the Convention, which means they promise they will respect it. But not all these countries have kept their promises.