How the UN defines children's rights
How the UN defines children's rights
JAKARTA (JP): The 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the
Child states a child is every human being below the age of 18,
unless adulthood is attained earlier under country laws
applicable to the child. The convention's most important point
is that all actions concerning the child shall take full account
of his or her best interest.
Other points of the convention are stated below:
1. The state must protect the child from any form of
discrimination.
2. The state shall provide the child with adequate care when
parents, or others charged with that responsibility, fail to do
so.
3. The state must respect the rights and responsibilities of
parents and the extended family to provide guidance for the child
which is appropriate to her or his evolving capacities.
4. Every child has the inherent right to life, and the state
has an obligation to ensure the child's survival and development.
5. The child has the right to a name at birth. The child
also has the right to acquire a nationality and to know his or
her parents and be cared for by them.
6. The state must protect and, if necessary, reestablish
basic aspects of the child's identity, including name,
nationality and family ties.
7. The child has a right to live with his or her parents
unless this is deemed to be incompatible with the child's best
interests. The child also has the right to maintain contact with
both parents if separated from one or both.
8. Children and their parents have the right to leave any
country and to enter their own for purposes of reunion or the
maintenance of the child-parent relationship.
9. The state has an obligation to prevent and remedy the
kidnapping or retention of children abroad by a parent or third
party.
10. The child has the right to express his or her opinion
freely and to have that opinion taken into account in any matter
or procedure affecting the child.
11. The child has the right to express his or her views,
obtain information, make ideas or information known, regardless
of frontiers.
12. The state shall respect the child's right to freedom of
thought, conscience and religion, subject to appropriate parental
guidance.
13. Children have a right to meet with others, and to join or
form associations.
14. Children have the right to protection from interference
with privacy, family, home and correspondence, and from libel or
slander.
15. The state shall ensure the accessibility to children of
information and material from a diversity of sources and it shall
encourage the mass media to disseminate information which is of
social and cultural benefit to the child, and take steps to
protect him or her from harmful materials.
16. Parents have the responsibility to rear and develop the
children; the state helps working parents so that their children
can receive care and facilities.
17. The state shall protect the child from all forms of
maltreatment by parents or others responsible for the care of the
child, and takes measures to prevent the child from abuses.
18. The state must provide special protection for a child
deprived of the family environment and ensure that appropriate
alternative family care or institutional placement is available
in such cases.
19. Adoption shall only be carried out in the best interest of
the child, and only with the authorization of competent
authorities and safeguards for the child.
20. Special protection shall be granted to a refugee child or
to a child seeking refugee status.
21. A disabled child has the right to special care, education
and training to help him or her enjoy a full and decent life in
dignity and achieve the greatest degree of self-reliance and
social integration possible.
22. The child has a right to health and medical care.
23. The child has the right to benefit from social security
including social insurance.
24. Every child has the right to a standard of living adequate
for his or her physical mental, spiritual, moral and social
development.
25. The child has a right to education. The state's duty is
to ensure that primary education is free and compulsory to
encourage different forms of secondary education accessible to
every child and to make higher education available to all on the
basis of capacity.
26. Children of minority communities and indigenous
populations have the right to enjoy their own culture and to
practice their own religion and language.
27. The child has the right to leisure, play and participation
in cultural and artistic activities.
28. The child has the right to be protected from work that
threatens his or her health, education or development. The state
shall set minimum ages for employment and regulate working
conditions.
29. Children have the right to protection from the use of
narcotic and psychotropic drugs and from being involved in their
production or distribution.
30. The state shall protect children from sexual exploitation
and abuse, including prostitution and involvement in pornography.
31. It is the state's obligation to make every effort to
prevent the sale, trafficking and abduction of children.
32. The child has the right to protection from all forms of
exploitation.
33. The state shall take all measures to ensure that children
under 15 years of age have no direct part in hostilities. No
child below 15 shall be recruited into the armed forces.
34. The state must ensure that child victims of armed
conflicts, torture, neglect, maltreatment or exploitation receive
appropriate treatment for their recovery and social reintegration
35. No child shall be subjected to torture, cruel treatment or
punishment, unlawful arrest or deprivation of liberty. Both
capital punishment and life imprisonment without the possibility
of release are prohibited for offenses committee by persons below
81 years.
36. A child in conflict with the law has the right to
treatment which promotes the child's sense of dignity and worth,
takes the child's age into account and aims at his or her
reintegration into society. The child is entitled to basic
guarantees as well as legal or other assistance for his or her
defense. (das)