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)