Children are a critical part of the world’s population and future. Their earliest experiences shape their development and determine their contribution – or cost – to society over the course of their lives. Today, more children are in need of humanitarian assistance than ever before — including from conflict, natural disaster and displacement. Their health and well-being are at risk because of poverty, malnutrition, poor sanitation and environmental pollution.

Every child deserves a life of security and dignity, free from violence and neglect. This requires adequate provisions for children’s living standards, health and education and access to social services – all based on a fundamental recognition that children are not objects or mere appendages of adults but full and equal human beings with rights of their own.

The rights of children are enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted in 1989. The Convention sets out fundamental minimum standards for children’s rights and is ratified by virtually all countries in the world. It provides a framework for governments to implement laws, policies and practices that respect the dignity of children and protect them from all forms of violence and oppression.

In addition to the right to protection, the Convention states that all children have a right to:

Provision: All children have a basic right to survival and well-being including food, water, shelter and healthcare. This includes the right to parental guidance and care. The Convention also sets out the right to participation (along with a right to be heard) in decisions that affect them. It questions assumptions that children are unable to participate in their own right and highlights the importance of giving consideration to the needs of individual children at all times, including when decisions are made about them.

Health: The right to health is essential for a child’s physical and emotional development, as well as for the effective functioning of societies. The right to health includes the right to affordable quality treatment, medicines and vaccines, as well as to a healthy environment, adequate nutrition, safe drinking water and sanitation.

Education: All children have a right to primary and secondary education, without discrimination on the basis of gender or socio-economic status. It also enshrines the right to quality education, and to a conducive learning atmosphere in which they can develop their talents and achieve their full potential.

The Convention states that ‘(a)ll children shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers or other limitations, and to form and educate their opinions freely.’ The Convention also outlines the rights of children to privacy, and to education that is culturally sensitive and takes into account their evolving capacities. It further provides the right to an adequate standard of living, based on national and international resources. The Convention also lays down the right to a family reunification plan in cases of separation.