Children's rights
November 20, 2009
The most widely ratified international human rights treaty, the Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted by the UN on November 20, 1989.
"With the adoption of the Convention by the General Assembly two-decades ago, the international community unanimously recognized for the first time in history that children, both girls and boys alike, are not simply the property of their parents or of their care givers, but individual rights-holders," said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay.
But UNICEF executive director Ann Veneman said in launching a report on the 20th anniversary of the convention that children's rights are still far from being assured.
"It's unacceptable that children are still dying from preventable causes, like pneumonia, malaria, measles and malnutrition," she said.
An estimated 8.8 million children under five died from various diseases in 2008 compared with 12.5 million in 1990.
Financial crisis hits kids hard
The 54-article document provides children with rights and protection ranging from child labor to sexual exploitation. The convention also provides protection from being drafted as child soldiers in conflicts, prostitution and domestic servitude. Only the United States and Somalia have not ratified the treaty.
UNICEF said "considerable progress" has been made since 1990 to provide education, healthcare programs as well as access to safe drinking water.
But now there are also other threats to children's well-being, including the economic crisis, the UN Children's Fund said in its report. The organization added that the financial downturn has led to higher under-five mortality rates, lower school enrollment, rising insecurity and children forced to work in dangerous environments.
"History has shown that children and women are particularly vulnerable to economic turmoil," the UN Children's Fund said.
"For the crisis not to leave a legacy of deprivation for generations, the choice has to be to safeguard, support, and if possible, expand, the essential services, protection and participation that are the right of all children at all times," UNICEF said.
sms/dpa/AP/AFP
Editor: Mark Mattox