CHILD RIGHTS

1. CHILD RIGHTS Shikha Wadhwa UNICEF, Jaipur

2. UN Convention on Rights of the Child - 1989 • Has changed the way we work with children • Child - up to 18 years • Convention is • Comprehensive • Universal • Unconditional • Holistic • Principles of the Convention • All Children/Children first • Right to Survival & Development • Best interest of the child must be taken into consideration • Harness Children’s participation

3. UN Convention on Rights of the Child - 1989 contd.... • 54 articles • For convenience these can be categorized • Right to Survival • Right to Development • Right to Protection • Right to Participation • 189 out of 191 countries have ratified the Convention • Once a country has ratified, it has to report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. India ratified in 1992. We sent the first report in 1997. The second report has covered 1997 to 2000 time-frame.

4. Rights Based ProgrammingHow to operationalize the rights principles. • Place children at the “Centre Stage”. Let children participate in decision making processes • Give priority to the most disadvantaged & hard to reach children. • Challenge the basic & underlying causes that prevent children & women from enjoying their rights and address it. • Disaggregate data by age, ethnic group, gender & geographic area for identification & targeting of these discriminated groups. • Programme on the basis that all rights are inter-related, indivisible and have equal status. • Give primary consideration to the best interest of the child.

5. RIGHTS-BASED Children are entitled to support as holder of rights NEEDS-BASED Children deserve help The Relationship between a Needs-based and a Rights-based Approach to Programming • Governments have binding legal & moral obligations • Governments “ought to”, but there is no clear obligation • Children are active participants by right • Children can participate in order to improve service delivery • All children have the same right to fulfil their potential • Given scarce resources, some children may have to be left out • Each piece of work has its own goal but there is not necessarily a unifying overall purpose • There is an overarching vision to which all work contributes

6. RIGHTS-BASED All adults can play a role in achieving children’s rights NEEDS-BASED Certain groups have technical expertise to meet children’s needs The Relationship between a Needs-based and a Rights-based Approach to Programming (Contd...) • Attention to both outcome and process is required • It may look only at outcome • Focus on general coverage, i.e. 80% of children have been vaccinated • Focus on the disadvantaged who have not had their rights met, i.e. 20% of children have not had their right to be vaccinated realised