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Setbacks and Successes
More progress was made in realizing and protecting children's rights in
the decade following adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the
Child than in any other comparable period in human history and
children's rights are now higher on public and political agendas than
ever before. Gains in democratic governance and rising respect for
human rights in many countries have contributed to this progress.
The near-universal ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the
Child has encouraged the ratification by States of other fundamental
human rights instruments and more and more States are committing to
honoring and implementing human rights agendas by establishing National
Plans of Action, including specific targets on the basis of which
progress can be monitored.
Major achievements in the area of child rights can already be seen:
Special institutions, structures, agendas and measures in the interest
of promoting child rights have emerged in all corners of the globe.
NGOs and other actors in civil society have emerged as innovative and
powerful voices for children's rights.
Wholesale
legislative reform in favor of child rights often has been the outcome
of the mandatory comprehensive review of national legislation under the
Convention's reporting process. Also as a result of this process,
States have acquired new impetus to achieving child survival and
development goals.
States have begun to respond to the
extreme violence and exploitation, abuse and neglect that is a reality
for millions of children. The principles requiring that children be
protected from 'all forms of physical and mental violence' have sparked
new hope for reducing the many forms of adult violence against
children.
Because of the Convention's non-discrimination
principle, States have moved to better realize and protect the rights
of forgotten and invisible children – children who are refugees,
children who have been institutionalized, children who work or are
otherwise exploited, children living or working on the streets and
children who have been bought and sold across borders.
States have been obliged to ensure that their definitions of childhood
meet the standards outlined in the Convention on the Rights of the
Child.
States have developed distinct systems of youth
justice that focus on reintegration in society and avoid – wherever
possible – criminalizing children and depriving them of liberty.
Progress has been made in ensuring that children's views are being
heard, respected and taken into account – within families, communities
and States – when actions are undertaken, policies shaped and results
assessed.
Challenges ahead:
In spite of the
remarkable achievements in advancing child rights, much remains to be
done. Progress has been uneven, with some countries lagging
considerably behind others in giving child rights its deserved
prominence on national agendas.
Globally, an estimated 12 million children under the age of five die every year, mostly of easily preventable causes.
Some 130 million children in developing countries are not in primary school and the majority of them are girls.
About 160 million children are severely or moderately malnourished.
Some 1.4 billion people lack access to safe water and 2.7 billion lack adequate sanitation.
Some States are moving toward increasingly punitive systems of juvenile
justice, with children beaten and arbitrarily detained by police and
forced to share prisons with adults in inhumane conditions.
Many unwanted children languish in orphanages and other institutions,
denied education and adequate health care. These children are often
physically abused.
An estimated 250 million children are engaged in some
form of labor. There are few examples of systematic actions to end
child exploitation that are sensitive to children's needs.
Armed conflicts around the globe continue to shorten and ruin the lives
of millions of children. In 2004, about 300,000 children served as
soldiers in national armies. Many of these children were killed or
maimed in combat; and many children were forced to kill and maim
others.
At the close of the 20th century, there is a
growing global consciousness of the issues affecting children and a
commitment to address them. New and growing problems – for example, of
HIV/AIDS, which has already orphaned millions of children and daily
afflicts thousands more – threaten to reverse hard-won health and other
social gains in a number of countries. But the world's children have
been made a promise that still stands. Millions of children's lives
will be affected if that commitment is not met.
-www.unicef.org
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