The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

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The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

• Central articles

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• In the Universal Declaration on Human Rights it
  is stated
• Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special
  care and assistance. All children, whether born
  in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social
  protection.
• The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
  gives all children in the world the same equal
  rights. Its basic principle is to ensure that
  the best interests of the child prevail in all
  decisions concerning the child and its life.
• The State Parties are obliged to ensure
• childrens fundamental rights food, health and
  a place to live
• childrens right to development education,
  leisure activities, act of play, information
• childrens right to co-determination influence,
  participation, freedom of expression
• Childrens right to protection from wars,
  violence, abuse and exploitation

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This principle must come through in legislation,
public management, general initiatives and
singular decisions and actions such as a
placement outside the home. Art. 3. 1 In all
actions concerning children, whether undertaken
by public or private social welfare institutions,
courts of law, administrative authorities or
legislative bodies, the best interests of the
child shall be a primary consideration. Art 3.
2 States Parties undertake to ensure the child
such protection and care as is necessary for his
or her well-being, taking into account the rights
and duties of his or her parents, legal
guardians, or other individuals legally
responsible for him or her, and, to this end,
shall take all appropriate legislative and
administrative measures. Art. 3. 3 States
Parties shall ensure that the institutions,
services and facilities responsible for the care
or protection of children shall conform with the
standards established by competent authorities,
particularly in the areas of safety, health, in
the number and suitability of their staff, as
well as competent supervision.
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Article 2 1. States Parties shall respect and
ensure the rights set forth in the present
Convention to each child within their
jurisdiction without discrimination of any kind,
irrespective of the child's or his or her
parent's or legal guardian's race, colour, sex,
language, religion, political or other opinion,
national, ethnic or social origin, property,
disability, birth or other status. 2. States
Parties shall take all appropriate measures to
ensure that the child is protected against all
forms of discrimination or punishment on the
basis of the status, activities, expressed
opinions, or beliefs of the child's parents,
legal guardians, or family members.
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• The principle of non-discrimination means that
  the kindergarten, school, a special care home and
  other forms of provided services are obliged to
  adjust to each individual child, its personal
  character and the specific values it brings from
  its lifeworld.
• In article 6 the State Parties recognise that
• States Parties recognize that every child has the
  inherent right to life.
• States Parties shall ensure to the maximum extent
  possible the survival and development of the
  child.

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• In Article 12 it is made clear that State Parties
  shall ensure every child its right to express its
  own views in all matters concerning the child and
  its life. And these views must be given due
  weight appropriate to the childs age and
  maturity.
• Art. 12. 1
• States Parties shall assure to the child who is
  capable of forming his or her own views the right
  to express those views freely in all matters
  affecting the child, the views of the child being
  given due weight in accordance with the age and
  maturity of the child.
• The convention also emphasises State Parties
  obligation to give the child possibility of
  expressing its views in any case or matter
  handled by judicial or adminstrative authorities
  concerning the child.
• Art. 12. 2 For this purpose, the child shall in
  particular be provided the opportunity to be
  heard in any judicial and administrative
  proceedings affecting the child, either directly,
  or through a representative or an appropriate
  body, in a manner consistent with the procedural
  rules of national law.

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According to Art. 12. 2, the child must be heard.
This is of great importance concerning children
in public care as the authorities must ensure the
child gets the possiblity to enjoy and use this
right. In the meaning of the convention, the
child is a fully fledged member of society with
equal civil rights as everyone else. This is
expressed in articles 7 and 8 that state that
from birth the child has the right to a name and
nationality and protection of its fundamental
identity. Art. 7. 1 The child shall be
registered immediately after birth and shall have
the right from birth to a name, the right to
acquire a nationality and. as far as possible,
the right to know and be cared for by his or her
parents. Art. 8. 1 States Parties undertake to
respect the right of the child to preserve his or
her identity, including nationality, name and
family relations as recognized by law without
unlawful interference.
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• Children have the right to
• express their views and feelings
• search, receive and pass on information
• determine and practice their beliefs
• create or participate in associations and
  peaceful assembly
• Art. 13. 1 The child shall have the right to
  freedom of expression this right shall include
  freedom to seek, receive and impart information
  and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers,
  either orally, in writing or in print, in the
  form of art, or through any other media of the
  child's choice.
• Art. 14. 1 States Parties shall respect the
  right of the child to freedom of thought,
  conscience and religion.
• Art. 15. 1 States Parties recognize the rights
  of the child to freedom of association and to
  freedom of peaceful assembly.

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Article 16 describes childrens right to privacy,
the right not be subject to unlawful interference
with their family, home or correspondence or
experience attacks on their honour and
reputation. Article 17 describes childrens
right to access to national and international
sources of information. Both articles are
important in the case of placed children. A care
home must be designed so the children are ensured
their privacy and are free from interference with
their homes and correspondence and the work in
care homes must be organised to support this.
Likewise, a care home must provide the child with
a broad range of different kinds of information.
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The state is obliged to ensure that when a child
is placed outside the home the responsible
authorities make periodic reviews of the
placement, its facilities, the treatment and all
other circumstances relevant to the placement
(art. 25). The state shall also recognize for
every child the right to benefit from social
security (Art. 26. 1) and a standard of living
adequate for the childs physical, mental,
spiritual, moral and social development (Art. 27.
1). State Parties must assist parents, and
others responsible for the child, to implement
this right and provide material assistance and
support programmes (Art. 27. 3).
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The state shall recognise the right of the child
to rest and leisure and to engage in play and
recreational activities and it must respect and
promote the right of the child to participate in
cultural and artistic life (Art. 31). Children
must have the opportunity to be children, to
play, see their friends and do what children do.
And a care home must give them a chance to do
this while also protecting them from using
drugs. State Parties shall also take appropriate
measures to protect the child from illicit use of
narcotic drugs and other psychotropic substances
and prevent the use of children in the illicit
production and trafficking of such substances
(Art. 33).
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And State Parties shall take all approrpiate
measures to promote physical and psychological
recovery and social reintegration of a child
victim of any kind of violence, physical harm,
abuse, exploitation etc. and such recovery and
reintegration shall take place in an environment
which fosters the health, self-respect and
dignity of the child (Art. 39). When a child has
experienced physical harm, abuse, exploitation
etc. the state is obliged to ensure the child
recovery and re-integration. To put the child in
some sort of care or programme that re-builds the
childs health, trust and self-esteem. For every
child, who one way or other has committed a
crime, the state must treat the child in a manner
that promotes the childs sense of dignity and
worth and reinforces the childs respect of human
rights and fundamental freedoms of others and
considers the childs reintegration and assuming
a constructive role in society (Art. 40).
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Concerned at the large number of children who are
abandoned or become orphans owing to violence,
internal disturbance, armed conflicts, natural
disasters, economic crises or social problems,
When care by the child's own parents is
unavailable or inappropriate, care by relatives
of the child's parents, by another substitute -
foster or adoptive - family or, if necessary, by
an appropriate institution should be considered.
Declaration on Social and Legal Principles
relating to the Protection and Welfare of Children