The Rights of the Child

A/RES/53/128No PDF available

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 106Promotion and protection of the rights of children, published in 1999.

What other versions does this mandate have?

7 versions · 1996–2002

This is an older version — the most recent is A/RES/56/138

2002A/RES/56/138The rights of the childLatestCompare with previous version
2001A/RES/55/79The rights of the childCompare with previous version
2000A/RES/54/149The rights of the childCompare with previous version
1999A/RES/53/128The rights of the childCompare with previous version
1998A/RES/52/107The rights of the childCompare with previous version

Versions are identified automatically by matching titles within the same organ (~97% accuracy on a manual audit).

What subjects does this mandate have?

17 topics

Child Labour Child Pornography Child Prostitution Child Refugees Child Soldiers Children in Armed Conflicts Children with Disabilities Humanitarian Assistance Laws and Regulations Rehabilitation Reservations and Declarations Right to Education Rights of the Child Sale of Children Signatures, Accessions, Ratifications Street Children Treaties

What does this mandate say?

92 operative paragraphs

I

Welcomes the unprecedented number of one hundred and ninety-one States that have ratified or acceded to the Convention on the Rights of the Child4 as a universal commitment to the rights of the child;

Once again urges all States that have not yet done so to sign and ratify or accede to the Convention as a matter of priority, with a view to reaching the goal of universal adherence by the tenth anniversary of the World Summit for Children and of the entry into force of the Convention;

Takes note of the report of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, and recognizes its important role in creating awareness of the principles and provisions of the Convention and in providing recommendations to States parties on its implementation;

Invites the Committee to enhance further the constructive dialogue with the States parties to the Convention and the transparent and effective functioning of the Committee;

Welcomes the fact that the Committee held a thematic discussion on the rights of children living in a world with human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS), and urges Governments, in cooperation with United Nations bodies and organizations, in particular the Joint and Co-sponsored United Nations Programme on Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the United Nations Population Fund, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the World Health Organization and the World Bank, to adopt all appropriate measures with a view to the realization of their rights;

Reaffirms the rights of all children affected by pandemics, particularly those living in a world with HIV/AIDS, to have access to health, education and social services and to be protected from all forms of discrimination, abuse or neglect;

Welcomes the increased attention given by the Committee to the realization of the highest attainable standards of health and access to health care, and also welcomes World Health Assembly resolution WHA51.22 of 16 May 1998 on the health of children and adolescents;

Invites States parties, when reporting to the Committee on the implementation of article 7 of the Convention, to provide information, in accordance with the reporting guidelines of the Committee, on their levels of birth registration and other relevant data in this regard;

Requests the Secretary-General to ensure the provision of appropriate staff and facilities for the effective and expeditious performance of the functions of the Committee, and takes note of the plan of action of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to strengthen the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and of the steps taken to ensure temporary support to the Committee within the framework of the plan of action;

Calls upon States parties to implement fully the Convention, to cooperate closely with the Committee and to comply in a timely manner with their reporting obligations under the Convention, in accordance with the guidelines elaborated by the Committee;

Expresses its concern at the great number of reservations to the Convention, and urges States parties to withdraw reservations incompatible with the object and purpose of the Convention and to consider reviewing other reservations with a view to withdrawing them;

Calls upon States parties to the Convention to take appropriate measures so that acceptance of the amendment to paragraph 2 of article 43 of the Convention by a two-thirds majority of States parties can be reached as soon as possible, in order for the amendment to enter into force, increasing the membership of the Committee from ten to eighteen experts;

Also calls upon States parties to the Convention to ensure that the education of the child shall be carried out in accordance with article 29 of the Convention and that the education shall be directed, inter alia, to the development of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, for the Charter of the United Nations and for different cultures and to the preparation of the child for responsible life in a free society, in the spirit of understanding, peace, tolerance, gender equality and friendship among peoples, ethnic, national and religious groups and persons of indigenous origin;

Further calls upon States parties to the Convention, in accordance with their obligation under article 42 of the Convention, to make the principles and provisions of the Convention widely known to adults and children alike, and also calls upon States parties to encourage training on the rights of the child for those involved in activities concerning children, for example through the programme of advisory services and technical cooperation in the field of human rights;

Stresses that the implementation of the Convention contributes to the achievement of the goals of the World Summit for Children, as emphasized in the report of the Secretary-General on progress at mid-decade on the implementation of General Assembly resolution 45/217 of 21 December 1990 and in his report on progress on the implementation of the World Declaration and the Plan of Action of the World Summit for Children;

Encourages the Committee, in monitoring the implementation of the Convention, to continue to pay attention to the needs of children in especially difficult circumstances;

Welcomes the positive results of the cooperation between the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the United Nations Children’s Fund, supports the rights-based approach adopted by the Fund, and encourages its further development;

II.CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES

Welcomes the increased attention given by the Committee on the Rights of the Child to the equal enjoyment by children with disabilities of the rights of the child, and takes note of the thematic discussion held in 1997 on the rights of children with disabilities, as well as the recommendations adopted;

Also welcomes the decision by the Committee to set up a working group to elaborate a plan of action for the future work of the Committee on behalf of children with disabilities;

Calls upon all States to take all necessary measures to ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by children with disabilities and to develop and enforce legislation against discrimination against children with disabilities;

Also calls upon all States to promote for children with disabilities a full and decent life, in conditions which ensure dignity, promote self-reliance and facilitate the child’s active participation in the community, including effective access to education and health services;

Emphasizes the right to education as a human right, and calls upon States to make education accessible to children with special educational needs in a manner conducive to the child’s achieving the fullest possible social integration and individual development and to adopt an integrated approach to providing adequate support and appropriate education for such children;

Recognizes the work done by the Special Rapporteur on Disability of the Commission for Social Development, encourages him to continue to pay special attention to children with disabilities, and welcomes the invitation by the Economic and Social Council, in its resolution 1997/20 of 21 July 1997, to enhance cooperation between the Special Rapporteur and the Committee;

Calls upon all States, in complying with their reporting obligations to the Committee under paragraph 1 of article 44 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child,4 to include, in accordance with the guidelines of the Committee, information on the situation and the needs of children with disabilities, including disaggregated data, and on the measures taken to ensure to such children their enjoyment of the rights under the Convention;

III.PREVENTION AND ERADICATION OF THE SALE OF CHILDREN

AND OF THEIR SEXUAL EXPLOITATION AND ABUSE,

INCLUDING CHILD PROSTITUTION AND CHILD PORNOGRAPHY

Welcomes the interim report of the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, which this year focuses on the issues of sale and trafficking of children, for all purposes of commercial sexual exploitation or otherwise, and expresses its support for her work;

Requests the Secretary-General to provide the Special Rapporteur with all necessary human and financial assistance to enable her to discharge her mandate fully;

Supports the work of the open-ended inter-sessional working group of the Commission on Human Rights on the elaboration of a draft optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child related to the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, and expresses the hope that it will make further progress prior to the fifty-fifth session of the Commission with a view to finalizing that work before the tenth anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child;4

Invites Governments, relevant specialized agencies, the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the relevant special rapporteur and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations to provide comments, inter alia, on the scope of the optional protocol, prior to the next session of the working group;

Calls upon all States parties to the Convention to fulfil their obligation under article 34 of the Convention, and also calls upon all States to support efforts in the context of the United Nations system aimed at adopting effective national, bilateral and multilateral measures for the prevention and eradication of the sale of children and of their sexual exploitation and abuse, including child prostitution and child pornography;

Calls upon States to criminalize all forms of sexual exploitation of children, including commercial sexual exploitation, and to condemn and penalize all those offenders involved, whether local or foreign, while ensuring that children victims of this practice are not penalized;

Also calls upon States to enact and enforce appropriate laws and to design and implement policies and programmes to protect children from sexual exploitation and abuse, in particular child prostitution, child pornography and child sex tourism;

Further calls upon States to review and revise, where appropriate, laws, policies, programmes and practices to eliminate all forms of sexual exploitation and abuse of children, including commercial sexual exploitation;

Requests all States to implement, on an urgent basis, measures to protect children from all forms of sexual exploitation and abuse, including measures in line with those outlined in the Declaration and Agenda for Action of the World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, held at Stockholm from 27 to 31 August 1996;

Encourages regional and interregional efforts, such as the Child Welfare Experts’ Conference of the Asia-Europe Meeting, held in London from 6 to 8 October 1998, to follow up the implementation of the Agenda for Action of the Congress, with the objective of identifying best practices and issues requiring particularly urgent action;

Encourages Governments to consult and facilitate the active participation of children who have been victims of sexual exploitation or abuse in the development and implementation of strategies to protect children from all forms of sexual exploitation and abuse;

Stresses the need to combat the existence of a market that encourages such criminal practices against children, including through preventive and enforcement measures targeting customers or individuals who sexually exploit or sexually abuse children;

Requests States to increase cooperation and concerted action by all relevant law enforcement authorities and institutions with a view to dismantling national, regional and international networks trafficking in children;

Also requests States to increase cooperation and concerted action, at the national, regional and international levels, to enforce measures to combat effectively all forms of sexual exploitation and abuse of children, in particular paedophilia, child sex tourism, child prostitution and child pornography, in particular its dissemination through the Internet;

Urges States, in cases of child sex tourism, to develop or strengthen and implement laws to criminalize the acts of nationals of the countries of origin when committed against children in the countries of destination, to ensure that a person who exploits a child for sexual abuse purposes in another country is prosecuted by competent national authorities, either in the country of origin or in the country of destination, to strengthen laws and law enforcement, including confiscation and seizure of assets and profits and other sanctions, against those who commit sexual crimes against children in countries of destination and to share relevant data;

Invites States and relevant United Nations bodies and agencies to allocate appropriate resources for comprehensive and gender-sensitive programmes to rehabilitate physically and psychologically child victims of trafficking and of any form of sexual exploitation and abuse and to take all appropriate measures to promote their full recovery and social reintegration;

IV.PROTECTION OF CHILDREN AFFECTED BY ARMED CONFLICT

Expresses grave concern at the numerous damaging effects of armed conflicts on children, and emphasizes the need for the world community to focus increased attention on this serious problem with a view to bringing it to an end;

Welcomes the report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, and expresses its support for his work for children affected by armed conflict, in particular his efforts to raise worldwide awareness and to mobilize official and public opinion for the protection of children affected by armed conflict, including through field visits, with the consent of the State concerned, in order to promote respect for the rights and needs of children in conflict and post-conflict situations;

Notes that, without adequate human resources, the effectiveness of the Special Representative will continue to be severely constrained, calls upon the Secretary-General to ensure that the necessary support is made available expeditiously to the Special Representative for the effective performance of his mandate, encourages the United Nations Children’s Fund, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to continue to provide support to the Special Representative, and calls upon States and other institutions to provide voluntary contributions to the Special Representative;

Calls upon the Special Representative and all relevant parts of the United Nations system to continue to develop a concerted approach to the rights, protection and welfare of children affected by armed conflict, in order to place this issue within the mainstream of United Nations policy-making and programme activities and to increase cooperation within their respective mandates, including, as appropriate, in the follow-up to the recommendations and field visits of the Special Representative;

Invites Governments, regional, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations to continue to cooperate with the Special Representative, taking into account his recommendations, and, in this context, welcomes the initiative of the Special Representative for a series of regional symposia on children and armed conflict, the first of which was held in London in June 1998, with the others being planned for Tokyo and for cities in other regions;

Welcomes the information provided by the Special Representative in his report on field missions and country initiatives, calls upon Governments and other parties in the countries concerned to implement the commitments they have undertaken, and invites them to consider carefully and to address the recommendations of the Special Representative;

Invites the Special Representative to continue to include in his reports information on his field visits, including recommendations and, as appropriate, commitments obtained as well as follow-up to them;

Invites all States to accede to relevant international human rights and humanitarian law instruments, and urges them to implement those instruments to which they are parties;

Calls upon all States and other parties to armed conflict to respect international humanitarian law, and, in this regard, calls upon States parties to respect fully the provisions of the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 and the additional protocols thereto of 1977;

Urges States and all other parties to armed conflict to adopt all necessary measures to end the use of children as soldiers and to ensure their demobilization and effective disarmament;

Calls upon States, United Nations bodies and agencies and other relevant humanitarian organizations to give priority to the respect for the rights of the child in complex humanitarian emergencies, in particular armed conflicts and post-conflict situations, and to integrate those rights into all humanitarian and development activities, including emergency relief operations, country programmes and field operations aimed at promoting peace, preventing and resolving conflicts and implementing peace agreements;

Urges all Governments and parties in complex humanitarian emergencies, in particular armed conflicts and post-conflict situations, to ensure the safe and unhindered access of humanitarian personnel in conformity with the relevant provisions of international law and national laws, so as to allow them to perform efficiently their task of assisting children;

Urges States to ensure that effective measures are taken for the rehabilitation, physical and psychological recovery and reintegration into society of children affected by armed conflict, child soldiers, victims of landmines and other weapons and victims of gender-based violence, inter alia, through adequate education and training, and invites the international community to assist in this endeavour;

Stresses the importance of promoting and supporting local capacities to address at the local level, including through advocacy, the issue of children and armed conflict;

Underlines the importancethat relevant measures to ensure respect for the rights of the child in the areas of health and nutrition, formal, informal or non-formal education, physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration be included in emergency and other humanitarian assistance policies and programmes;

Stresses the urgent need to raise the current human rights standards set by article 38 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child,4 supports the work of the open-ended inter-sessional working group of the Commission on Human Rights on a draft optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child related to the involvement of children in armed conflict and the task given to the chairperson of the working group by the Commission in its resolution 1998/761 to undertake broad informal consultations with a view to presenting a progress report to the working group at its next meeting, and expresses the hope that it will make further progress prior to the fifty-fifth session of the Commission with a view to finalizing this work;

Welcomes the ongoing efforts to bring to an end the use of children as soldiers, and, in this context, recognizes the contribution of the United Nations Diplomatic Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court and recalls the qualification as a war crime in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court of the conscription, enlistment or use to participate actively in hostilities of child soldiers, which will contribute towards making it possible to end impunity for the perpetrators of such crimes;

Notes with concern the impact of small arms and light weapons on children in situations of armed conflict, in particular as a result of their illicit production and traffic, and calls upon States to address this problem;

Welcomes increased international efforts in various forums with respect to anti-personnel mines, recognizes the positive effect on children of those efforts, and, in this regard, takes due note of the entry into force on 1 March 1999 of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-personnel Mines and on Their Destruction and its implementation by those States that become parties to it, as well as of the entry into force on 3 December 1998 of the amended Protocol on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Mines, Booby-traps and Other Devices (Protocol II) to the Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects and its implementation by those States that become parties to it;

Calls upon States and relevant United Nations bodies to continue to support national and international mine action efforts, including by continuing to contribute to the Voluntary Trust Fund for Assistance in Mine Clearance, and to take further action to promote gender- and age-appropriate mine-awareness programmes, victim assistance and child-centred rehabilitation, thereby reducing the number and the plight of child victims;

Reaffirms that rape in the conduct of armed conflict constitutes a war crime and that under certain circumstances it constitutes a crime against humanity and an act of genocide, as defined in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, and calls upon all States to take all measures required for the protection of women and children from all acts of gender-based violence, including rape, sexual exploitation and forced pregnancy, to strengthen mechanisms to investigate and punish all those responsible and bring the perpetrators to justice;

Condemns the abduction of children in situations of armed conflict, and urges States, international organizations and other concerned parties to take all appropriate measures to secure the unconditional release of all abducted children;

Recommends that whenever sanctions are imposed their impact on children be assessed and monitored and that humanitarian exceptions be child-focused and formulated with clear guidelines for their application;

Recalls the importance of preventive measures such as early warning systems, preventive diplomacy and education for peace to prevent conflicts and their negative impact on the rights of the child, and urges Governments and the international community to promote sustainable human development;

Calls upon all States, in accordance with the norms of international humanitarian law, to integrate in the training and gender-sensitized education programmes of their armed forces, including those for peacekeeping, instruction on responsibilities towards the civilian population, in particular women and children;

Invites Member States and relevant United Nations bodies and non-governmental organizations to consider the issue of how the impact of armed conflict on children can best be integrated into events designed to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the World Summit for Children and of the entry into force of the Convention on the Rights of the Child;

V.REFUGEE AND INTERNALLY DISPLACED CHILDREN

Urges Governments to pay particular attention to the situation of refugee and internally displaced children by continuing to design and improve the implementation of policies and programmes for their care and well-being with the necessary international cooperation, in particular with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations Children’s Fund and international humanitarian organizations;

Calls upon States and United Nations bodies, in recognizing the particular vulnerability of refugee and internally displaced children, to protect both their safety and their developmental needs, including health, education and psycho-social rehabilitation, and expresses its concern about adolescents in refugee camps, in particular girls, who are at risk of gender-based violence and sexual exploitation and abuse;

Expresses its deep concern about the growing number of unaccompanied refugee and internally displaced children, and calls upon all States and United Nations bodies and agencies to ensure the early identification and registration of unaccompanied refugee and internally displaced children, to give priority to programmes for family tracing and reunification and to continue to monitor the care arrangements for unaccompanied refugee and internally displaced children;

Calls upon all States and other parties to armed conflicts to recognize the particular vulnerability of refugee and internally displaced children to the damaging effects of such conflicts, stresses the special vulnerability of child-headed households, and calls upon Governments and United Nations bodies to give these situations urgent attention, to enhance protection and assistance mechanisms and to involve women and youth in the design, delivery and monitoring of measures taken to this effect;

Notes the adoption by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee of the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, and invites the Representative of the Secretary-General on internally displaced persons to pay special attention to the situation of internally displaced children in his work and to continue to work closely with the Emergency Relief Coordinator and all agencies and organizations involved;

VI.ELIMINATION OF THE EXPLOITATION OF CHILD LABOUR

Reaffirms the right of the child to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous to or interfere with the child’s education, or to be harmful to the child’s health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development;

Welcomes the measures taken by Governments to eliminate the exploitation of child labour, while recalling the Programme of Action for the Elimination of the Exploitation of Child Labour, and calls upon relevant United Nations agencies, in particular the United Nations Children’s Fund and the International Labour Organization, to continue to support national efforts in this regard;

Also welcomes the recent holding of various international conferences on various forms of child labour;

Further welcomes the efforts by the Committee on the Rights of the Child in the area of child labour, takes note of its recommendations,6 and encourages the Committee as well as other relevant human rights treaty bodies, within their respective mandates, to continue to monitor this growing problem when examining reports of States parties;

Calls upon all States to translate into concrete action their commitment to the progressive and effective elimination of all forms of exploitative child labour, and urges them, as a matter of priority, to eliminate the worst forms of child labour, such as forced labour, bonded labour and other forms of slavery;

Calls upon all States that have not yet done so to consider ratifying the conventions of the International Labour Organization concerning the abolition of forced labour and the minimum age for employment, including for particularly hazardous work for children, and to implement those conventions;

Encourages the negotiations in the International Labour Organization of a new convention on the elimination of the worst forms of child labour, and calls upon States to support actively a prompt and successful conclusion in 1999;

Calls upon all States to set specific target dates for eliminating all forms of child labour that are contrary to accepted international standards, for ensuring the full enforcement of relevant existing laws and, where appropriate, enacting legislation necessary to implement their obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child4 and International Labour Organization standards ensuring the protection of working children;

Recognizes that primary education is one of the main instruments for reintegrating child workers, and calls upon all States to recognize the right to education by making primary education compulsory and to ensure that all children have access to free primary education as a key strategy to prevent child labour;

Welcomes, in this context, the appointment of a special rapporteur whose mandate will focus on the right to education, and recognizes the role that the Special Rapporteur could play in the efforts of States, in particular in the field of primary education;

Calls upon all States to assess and examine systematically, in close cooperation with international organizations such as the International Labour Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund, the magnitude, nature and causes of the exploitation of child labour and to develop and implement strategies for combating these practices, with a specific emphasis on the situation of girls, their right to education and access to schools on an equal basis with boys, in close cooperation with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization;

Calls upon all States and the United Nations system to strengthen international cooperation as a means of assisting Governments in preventing or combating violations of the rights of the child, including the exploitation of child labour;

VII.THE PLIGHT OF CHILDREN LIVING AND/OR WORKING ON THE STREETS

Expresses grave concern at the large number of children living and/or working on the streets and at the continuing growth in incidents and reports worldwide of such children being affected by serious crime, drug trafficking and abuse, violence and prostitution;

Welcomes the continuing efforts of Governments, the United Nations system and civil society to tackle this multifaceted problem;

Calls upon Governments to continue actively to seek comprehensive solutions to the problems of children living and/or working on the streets, including by helping to alleviate the poverty of such children, their families or guardians, by taking measures to ensure their reintegration into society and by providing, inter alia, adequate nutrition, shelter, health care and education, taking into account that such children are particularly vulnerable to all forms of violence, abuse, exploitation and neglect;

Emphasizes that the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child4 and other relevant human rights instruments must constitute the standard in efforts to deal with this problem, and recommends that the Committee on the Rights of the Child and other relevant human rights treaty monitoring bodies continue to give attention to it when examining the reports of States parties;

Strongly urges all Governments to guarantee the respect for all human rights and fundamental freedoms, in particular the right to life, to take urgent measures to prevent the killing of children living and/or working on the streets, to combat torture and violence against them, to bring the perpetrators to justice and to ensure strict compliance with the Convention and other relevant human rights instruments, including the requirement that legal and juridical processes respect the rights of the child;

Calls upon the international community to support, through effective international cooperation, the efforts of States to improve the situation of children living and/or working on the streets, and encourages States parties to the Convention, in preparing their reports to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, to take full account of the particular needs and rights of such children and to consider requesting technical advice and assistance for initiatives aimed at improving their situation;

VIII.Decides:

To request the Secretary-General to submit a report on the rights of the child to the General Assembly at its fifty-fourth session containing information on the status of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the problems addressed in the present resolution;

To request the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict to submit to the General Assembly and the Commission on Human Rights reports containing relevant information on the situation of children affected by armed conflict, bearing in mind existing mandates and reports of relevant bodies;

To continue its consideration of this question at its fifty-fourth session under the item entitled “Promotion and protection of the rights of the child”.

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