The impact of the Convention
- The Convention spells out the basic human rights that children everywhere have: the right to survival; to develop to the fullest; to protection from harmful influences, abuse and exploitation; and to participate fully in family, cultural and social life.
- The Convention is the most widely ratified human rights treaty. The Convention has been ratified by 193 countries (not USA and Somalia) which have committed to protecting and ensuring child rights.
- The Convention has brought on significant change in national laws, policies and programmes for the benefit of girls and boys as well as a notable influence on jurisprudence at the national, regional and international levels.
What still needs to be done
- There is still no international mechanism for children to raise complaints when their rights have been violated, or, in most countries, a way that children can challenge violations of their rights in a court of law.
- Governments must live up to their obligations; including the duty to ensure adherence to the Convention’s principles by corporate organisations. The business sector needs to consider how to ensure their sphere of activity does not, (directly or indirectly), cause violations of the rights specified by the Convention.
What Save the Children is doing:
- Save the Children uses a Child Rights Programming (CRP) approach, which puts children at the centre of all programming. CRP recognises children as rights holders and engages children as actors in their own development. It recognises governments as the main duty-bearers in fulfilling children’s rights, and promotes accountability to their citizens.
- Save the Children supports the development of a third optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child which will introduce a complaints mechanism, so children are able to challenge violations to their rights.
- Save the Children is also highlighting the need for the Convention to be more readily used as a legal instrument. At a conference in Geneva last week Save the Children brought together experts to discuss how the Convention can be used more effectively in a court of law.
- Save the Children promotes the idea that all sectors of the global community work together to ensure child rights are realised and supports governments and civil society in working to ensure child rights.