Children’s Rights: A Comprehensive Overview of the UN Convention
Be recognized
: A child is recognized as a person under the age of 18, unless national laws recognize an earlier age of majority. ARTICLE 2
Non-discrimination
: All rights apply to all children without exception. It is the State’s obligation to protect children from any form of discrimination and to take positive action to promote their rights. ARTICLE 3
Adequate care
: A child is recognized as a person under the age of 18, unless national laws recognize an earlier age of majority. ARTICLE 4
Implementation of these rights
: The State must do all it can to implement the rights contained in the Convention. ARTICLE 5
Parental guidance
: The State must respect the rights and responsibilities of parents and the extended family to provide guidance for the child that is appropriate to her or his evolving capacities. ARTICLE 6
Life:
Every child has the inherent right to life, and the State has an obligation to ensure the child’s survival and development. ARTICLE 7
A name and nationality
The child has the right to a name at birth. The child also has the right to acquire a nationality and, as far as possible, to know his or her parents and be cared for by them. ARTICLE 8
Identity protection
The State has an obligation to protect and, if necessary, re-establish basic aspects of the child’s identity. This includes name, nationality, and family ties. ARTICLE 9
Live with their parents
The child has a right to live with his or her parents unless this is deemed 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. ARTICLE 10
Family reunification
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. ARTICLE 11
Freedom from kidnapping
The State has an obligation to prevent and remedy the kidnapping or retention abroad of children by a parent or third party. ARTICLE 12
Freedom of opinion
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. ARTICLE 13
Freedom of expression
The child has the right to express his or her views, obtain information and make ideas or information known, regardless of frontiers. ARTICLE 14
Freedom of thought
The State shall respect the child’s right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion, subject to appropriate parental guidance. ARTICLE 15
Freedom of association
Children have a right to meet with others, and to join or form associations. ARTICLE 16
Protection of privacy
Children have the right to protection from interference with their privacy, family, home, and correspondence, and to protection from libel or slander. ARTICLE 17
Access information
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 that is of social and cultural benefit to the child, and take steps to protect him or her from harmful materials. ARTICLE 18
Be raised by their parents
Parents have joint primary responsibility for raising the child, and the State shall support them in this. The State shall provide parents with appropriate child-rearing assistance. ARTICLE 19
Freedom from abuse
The State shall protect the child from all forms of maltreatment by parents or others responsible for the child’s care and shall establish appropriate social programs for the prevention of abuse and the treatment of victims. ARTICLE 20
Alternative care
The State is obliged to provide special protection for a child deprived of the family environment and to ensure that appropriate alternative family care or institutional placement is available in such cases. Efforts to meet this obligation shall pay due regard to the child’s cultural background.ARTICLE 21
Safe adoption
In countries where adoption is recognized and/or allowed, it shall be carried out only in the best interests of the child, and then only with the authorization of competent authorities and safeguards for the child. ARTICLE 22
Refugee protection
Special protection shall be granted to a refugee child or to a child seeking refugee status. It is the State’s obligation to cooperate with competent organizations that provide such protection and assistance. ARTICLE 23
Special disability care
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. ARTICLE 24
Health services
The child has a right to the highest standard of health and medical care attainable. States shall place special emphasis on the reduction of infant and child mortality and on the provision of primary and preventive healthcare and of public health education. ARTICLE 25
Review of placement
A child who is placed by the State for reasons of care, protection, or treatment is entitled to have that placement evaluated regularly. ARTICLE 26
Social security
The child has the right to benefit from social security, including social insurance. ARTICLE 27
A standard of living
Every child has the right to a standard of living adequate for his or her physical, mental, spiritual, moral, and social development. ARTICLE 28
An education
The child has a right to education, and the State’s duty is to ensure that primary education is free and compulsory. ARTICLE 29
Personal development
Education shall aim at developing the child’s personality, talents, and mental and physical abilities to the fullest extent. ARTICLE 30
Their own culture
Children of minority communities and indigenous populations have the right to enjoy their own culture and to practice their own religion and language. ARTICLE 31
Leisure and play
The child has the right to leisure, play, and participation in cultural and artistic activities. ARTICLE 32
Freedom from child labor
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 shall regulate working conditions. ARTICLE 33
Protection from drug abuse
Children have the right to protection from the use of narcotic and psychotropic drugs, and from being involved in their production or distribution. ARTICLE 34
Freedom from sexual exploitation
The State shall protect children from sexual exploitation and abuse, including prostitution and involvement in pornography. ARTICLE 35
Freedom from human trafficking
It is the State’s obligation to make every effort to prevent the sale, trafficking, and abduction of children. ARTICLE 36
Freedom from exploitation
The child has the right to protection from all forms of exploitation prejudicial to any aspects of the child’s welfare not covered in articles 32–35. ARTICLE 37
Freedom from torture
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 for release are prohibited for offenses committed by persons below age 18. ARTICLE 38
Protection from conflict
States shall take all feasible 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. ARTICLE 39
Rehabilitative care
The State has an obligation to ensure that child victims of armed conflicts, torture, maltreatment, or exploitation receive appropriate treatment for their recovery and social reintegration.
ARTICLE 40
Juvenile justice
A child in conflict with the law has the right to treatment that promotes the child’s sense of dignity and worth, takes the child’s age into account, and aims at his or her defense ARTICLE 41
Relevant higher national standards
If a country has laws and standards that go further than the present Convention, then the country must keep these laws. ARTICLE 42
Knowledge of these rights
Governments must actively work to make sure children and adults know about the Convention. ARTICLE 43 – 54
Input from adults and governments
Articles 43 – 54 are about how adults and governments must work together to make sure all children can enjoy all their rights.