Rights of the Child

A/RES/57/190View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 105 Promotion and protection of the rights of children, published in 2003.

What other versions does this mandate have?

23 versions · 2003–2025

This is an older version — the most recent is A/RES/80/190

Year	Symbol	Title	Word length	Text similarity
2025	A/RES/80/190	Rights of the child	9,397	42%Compare
2023	A/RES/78/187	Rights of the child	10,005	32%Compare
2022	A/RES/76/147	Rights of the child	8,383	40%Compare
2020	A/RES/74/133	Rights of the child	7,470	29%Compare
2019	A/RES/73/155	Rights of the child	8,245	31%Compare

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

29 reports · 2003–2026

Year	Symbol	Title	Mandate resolution
2026	A/81/81	Follow-up to the outcome of the special session of the General Assembly on children report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/76/147
2025	A/80/296	Status of the Convention on the Rights of the Child report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/78/187
2024	A/79/274	Follow-up to the outcome of the special session of the General Assembly on children report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/76/147
2023	A/78/366	Status of the Convention on the Rights of the Child report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/76/147
2022	A/77/309	Follow-up to the outcome of the special session of the General Assembly on children report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/76/147

What’s in this document?

112 operative paragraphs

I

Once again urges the States that have not yet done so to sign and ratify or accede to the Convention on the Rights of the Child2 as a matter of priority with a view to reaching the goal of universal adherence as soon as possible;

Reiterates its concern at the great number of reservations to the Convention, and urges States parties to withdraw reservations that are incompatible with the object and purpose of the Convention and to review on a regular basis any reservations with a view to withdrawing them;

Calls upon States parties to implement fully the Convention, while stressing that the implementation of the Convention contributes to the achievement of the goals of the World Summit for Children and the special session of the General Assembly on children, and of the goals and objectives endorsed at the relevant major United Nations summits, conferences and special sessions;

Urges States to assure the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters that affect him or her, the views being given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child, and in this regard to involve children and young people in their efforts to implement the goals of the Summit and the special session of the General Assembly on children, as well as in other programmes relating to children and young people, as appropriate;

Calls upon States parties to cooperate closely with the Committee on the Rights of the Child and to comply in a timely manner with their reporting obligations under the Convention, in accordance with the guidelines elaborated by the Committee, and encourages States parties to take into account the recommendations made by the Committee in the implementation of the provisions of the Convention;

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, notes the temporary support given by the plan of action of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to strengthen the important role of the Committee in advancing the implementation of the Convention, and also requests the Secretary-General to make available information on the follow-up to the plan of action;

Calls upon States parties urgently 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, thus increasing the membership of the Committee from ten to eighteen experts, bearing in mind, inter alia, the additional workload of the Committee when the two Optional Protocols to the Convention enter into force;

Invites the Committee to continue to enhance its constructive dialogue with the States parties and its transparent and effective functioning;

Recommends that, within their mandates, all relevant human rights mechanisms and all other relevant organs and mechanisms of the United Nations system and the supervisory bodies of the specialized agencies pay attention to particular situations in which children are in danger and in which their rights are violated and that they take into account the work of the Committee, and encourages the further development of the rights-based approach adopted by the United Nations Children’s Fund and further steps to increase system-wide coordination and inter-agency cooperation for the promotion and protection of the rights of the child;

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

Reaffirms the importance of ensuring adequate and systematic training in the rights of the child for professional groups working with and for children, including specialized judges, law enforcement officials, lawyers, social workers, medical doctors, health professionals and teachers, and of coordination among various governmental bodies involved in children’s rights, and encourages States and relevant bodies and organizations of the United Nations system to continue to promote education and training in this regard;

Encourages Governments and relevant United Nations bodies, as well as relevant non-governmental organizations and child rights advocates, to continue to contribute, as appropriate, to the web-based database launched by the United Nations Children’s Fund so as to continue the provision of information on laws, structures, policies and processes adopted at the national level to translate the Convention into practice, and in this regard commends that body for its work to disseminate lessons learned in the implementation of the Convention;

II.Protection and promotion of the rights of children

Identity, family relations and birth registration

Calls upon all States to intensify efforts to ensure the registration of all children immediately after birth, including through the consideration of simplified, expeditious and effective procedures;

Also calls upon all States to 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 and, where a child is illegally deprived of some or all of the elements of his or her identity, to provide appropriate assistance and protection with a view to re-establishing speedily his or her identity;

Urges all States to ensure, as far as possible, the right of the child to know and be cared for by his or her parents;

Also urges all States to ensure that a child shall not be separated from his or her parents against their will, except when the competent authorities, subject to judicial review, determine, in accordance with applicable law and procedures, that such separation is necessary in the best interest of the child, and, where alternative care is necessary, to promote family and community-based care in preference to placement in institutions, recognizing that such determination may be necessary in a particular case, such as one involving abuse or neglect of the child by the parents or one in which the parents are living separately and a decision must be made as to the child’s place of residence;

Recalls paragraph 15 of the outcome of the special session of the General Assembly on children,6 which states that the family is the basic unit of society and as such should be strengthened; that it is entitled to receive comprehensive protection and support; that the primary responsibility for the protection, upbringing and development of children rests with the family; and that all institutions of society should respect children’s rights and secure their well-being and render appropriate assistance to parents, families, legal guardians and other caregivers so that children can grow and develop in a safe and stable environment and in an atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding, bearing in mind that, in different cultural, social and political systems, various forms of the family exist;

Calls upon States to take all necessary measures to ensure that the best interest of the child is the primary consideration in adoptions of children and to take all necessary measures to prevent and combat illegal adoptions and adoptions which do not follow the normal procedures;

Also calls upon States to take all necessary measures to address the problem of children growing up without parents, in particular orphaned children and children who are victims of family and social violence, neglect and abuse;

Urges States to address cases of international kidnapping of children by one of the parents;

Health

Calls upon all States and relevant organizations and bodies of the United Nations system, in particular the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund, to pay particular attention to the development of sustainable health systems and social services to ensure the effective prevention of disease, malnutrition, disability and infant and child mortality, including through prenatal and post-natal health care, as well as the provision of necessary medical treatment and health care to all children, taking into consideration the special needs of young children and girls, including prevention of common infectious diseases, the special needs of adolescents, including those relating to reproductive and sexual health and threats from substance abuse and violence, and the particular needs of children living in poverty, children in situations of armed conflict and children in other vulnerable groups, and to strengthen ways of empowering families and communities;

Calls upon all States to adopt all necessary measures to ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by children affected by disease and malnutrition, including protection from all forms of discrimination, abuse or neglect, in particular in the access to and provision of health care;

Welcomes the attention given by the Committee on the Rights of the Child to the realization of the highest attainable standards of health and access to health care and to the rights of children affected by the human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS);

Urges States to give particular emphasis to the prevention of HIV infection in young children and strengthen efforts to prevent adolescents and women from becoming HIV-infected, inter alia, by including HIV/AIDS prevention in educational curricula and educational programmes consistent with the epidemiology of the diseases in each State, and by supporting wide-scale voluntary HIV testing and counselling programmes for pregnant women, together with services for HIV-infected pregnant women to reduce the risk of transmitting the virus from infected pregnant women to their children;

Urges all States to take all necessary measures to protect children infected or affected by HIV/AIDS from all forms of discrimination, stigma, abuse and neglect, in particular in the access to and provision of health, education and social services, with a view to the realization of their rights;

Calls upon the international community, relevant United Nations agencies, funds and programmes and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations to intensify their support of national efforts against HIV/AIDS aimed at providing assistance to children infected or affected by the epidemic, including those orphaned as a result of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, focusing in particular on the worst-hit regions of Africa and areas in which the epidemic is severely setting back national development gains, calls upon them also to give importance to the treatment, care and support of children infected with HIV/AIDS, and invites them to consider further involving the private sector;

Urges all States to assign priority to activities and programmes aimed at preventing the abuse of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and inhalants as well as preventing other addictions, in particular addiction to alcohol and tobacco, among children and young people, especially those in vulnerable situations, and urges all States to counter the use of children and young people in the illicit production of and trafficking in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances;

Also urges all States to make appropriate treatment and rehabilitation accessible for children, including adolescents, dependent on narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, inhalants and alcohol;

Education

Calls upon States to recognize the right to education on the basis of equal opportunity by making primary education compulsory and ensuring that all children have access to free and relevant primary education, as well as by making secondary education generally available and accessible to all, in particular by the progressive introduction of free education;

Reaffirms the Dakar Framework for Action adopted at the World Education Forum¹⁰ and calls for its full implementation, and in this regard invites the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to continue to implement its mandated role in coordinating Education for All partners and maintaining their collaborative momentum;

¹⁰See United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Final Report of the World Education Forum, Dakar, Senegal, 26–28 April 2000 (Paris, 2000).

Invites Member States to develop national plans of action, or to strengthen existing ones, in order to achieve the objectives of Education for All so as to ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling;

Calls upon all States to eliminate the gender gap in education, reaffirms the commitment contained in the United Nations Millennium Declaration to ensure equal access for girls and boys to all levels of education and the completion of a full course of primary schooling by children everywhere, boys and girls alike, by 2015,8 and in this regard encourages the implementation of the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative launched by the Secretary-General at the World Education Forum;

Calls upon States to ensure that emphasis is given to the qualitative aspects of education, that the education of the child is carried out, that States parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child2 develop and implement programmes for the education of the child, in accordance with articles 28 and 29 of the Convention, and that education is directed, inter alia, to the development of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms and to the preparation of the child for a responsible life in a free society in a spirit of understanding, peace, tolerance, gender equality and friendship among peoples, ethnic, national and religious groups and persons of indigenous origin, and to ensure that children, from an early age, benefit from education on values, attitudes, modes of behaviour and ways of life that will enable them to resolve any dispute peacefully and in a spirit of respect for human dignity and of tolerance and non-discrimination, bearing in mind the Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace;¹¹

¹¹Resolutions 53/243 A and B.

Calls upon all States to take all appropriate measures to prevent racist, discriminatory and xenophobic attitudes and behaviour by means of education, keeping in mind the important role that children have to play in changing such practices;

Also calls upon all States to remove educational disparities and make education accessible to children living in poverty, children living in remote areas, children with special educational needs, children affected by armed conflict and children requiring special protection, including refugee children, migrant children, street children, children deprived of their liberty, indigenous children and children belonging to minorities;

Calls upon States, educational institutions and the United Nations system, in particular the United Nations Children’s Fund, the United Nations Development Fund for Women and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, to develop and implement gender-sensitive strategies to address the particular needs of the girl child in education;

Freedom from violence

Reaffirms the obligation of States to protect children from torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment;

Calls upon States to take all appropriate measures to prevent and protect children from all forms of violence, including physical, mental and sexual violence, torture, child abuse, abuse by police, other law enforcement authorities and employees and officials in detention centres or welfare institutions, including orphanages, and domestic violence;

Also calls upon States to investigate and submit cases of torture and other forms of violence against children to the competent authorities for the purpose of prosecution and to impose appropriate disciplinary or penal sanctions against those responsible for such practices;

Requests all relevant human rights mechanisms, in particular special rapporteurs and working groups, within their mandates, to pay attention to the special situations of violence against children, reflecting their experiences in the field;

Reaffirms its decision to request the Secretary-General to conduct an in-depth study of the question of violence against children, and encourages him to appoint, as soon as possible, an independent expert to direct the study, in collaboration with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations Children’s Fund and the World Health Organization, taking into account the outcome of the special session of the General Assembly on children6 and the recommendations made by the Committee on the Rights of the Child after its two days of general discussion on violence against children;¹²

¹²See Official Records of the General Assembly, Fifty-seventh Session, Supplement No. 41 and corrigendum (A/57/41 and Corr.1), sect. IV.C.

Calls upon the Governments of all States, in particular States in which the death penalty has not been abolished, to comply with the obligations that they have assumed under relevant provisions of international human rights instruments, including in particular articles 37 to 40 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and articles 6 and 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;¹³

¹³See resolution 2200 A (XXI), annex.

III.Promotion and protection of the rights of children in particularly vulnerable situations and non-discrimination against children

Plight of children working and/or living on the streets

Calls upon Governments to seek comprehensive solutions to the problems that cause children to work and/or live on the streets and to implement appropriate programmes and policies for the protection and the rehabilitation and reintegration of those children, bearing in mind that such children are particularly vulnerable to all forms of violence, abuse, exploitation and neglect;

Calls upon all States to ensure that basic social services, notably education, are provided for children in order to divert them from and to address the economic imperatives that lead to involvement in harmful, exploitative and abusive activity;

Strongly urges all Governments to guarantee respect for all human rights and fundamental freedoms, in particular the right to life, to take urgent and effective measures to prevent the killing of children working and/or living on the streets, to combat torture and abusive treatment and violence against them and to bring the perpetrators to justice;

Calls upon all States to take the situation of children working and/or living on the streets into account when preparing reports for submission to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, and encourages the Committee and other relevant bodies and organizations of the United Nations system, within their existing mandates, to pay increased attention to the question of children working and/or living on the streets;

Calls upon the international community to support, through effective international cooperation, including technical advice and assistance, the efforts of States to improve the situation of children working and/or living on the streets;

Refugee and internally displaced children

Urges Governments to improve the implementation of policies and programmes for the protection, care and well-being of refugee and internally displaced children and for the provision of basic social services, including access to education, 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 the Representative of the Secretary-General on internally displaced persons, in accordance with the obligations of States under the Convention on the Rights of the Child;2

Calls upon all States and other parties to armed conflict, as well as United Nations organizations and bodies, to give urgent attention, in terms of protection and assistance, to the fact that refugee and internally displaced children are particularly exposed to risks in connection with armed conflict, such as being forcibly recruited or subjected to sexual violence, abuse or exploitation;

Expresses its deep concern about the growing number of refugee and internally displaced children who are unaccompanied or separated from their families, and calls upon all States and United Nations bodies and agencies and other relevant organizations to give priority to programmes for family tracing and reunification and to continue to monitor the care arrangements for refugee and internally displaced children who are unaccompanied or separated from their families;

Children with disabilities

Encourages the working group on the rights of children with disabilities established pursuant to the decision of the Committee on the Rights of the Child to put into practice as soon as possible the recommendations arising from the day of general discussion on the rights of children with disabilities, held on 6 October 1997,¹⁴ including the drafting of a plan of action on children with disabilities, in close cooperation with the Special Rapporteur on disability of the Commission for Social Development and other relevant parts of the United Nations system;

¹⁴See Official Records of the General Assembly, Fifty-third Session, Supplement No. 41 (A/53/41), sect. IV.C.2; and ibid., Fifty-fifth Session, Supplement No. 41 (A/55/41), sect. IV.C.2.

Encourages the Ad Hoc Committee on a Comprehensive and Integral International Convention on Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities to consider the issue of children with disabilities in its deliberations;

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 their discrimination so as to ensure dignity, promote self-reliance and facilitate their active participation in the community, including effective access to educational and health services;

Migrant children

Calls upon States to protect all human rights of migrant children, in particular unaccompanied migrant children, and to ensure that the best interest of the child shall accordingly be a primary consideration, and encourages the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the United Nations Children’s Fund and other relevant United Nations bodies, within their respective mandates, to pay particular attention to the conditions of migrant children in all States and, as appropriate, to make recommendations to strengthen their protection;

Also calls upon States to cooperate fully with and assist the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on the human rights of migrants in addressing the particularly vulnerable conditions of migrant children;

IV.Prevention and eradication of the sale of children and of their sexual exploitation and abuse, including child prostitution and child pornography

Welcomes the report of the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography,¹⁵ and expresses its support for his work;

¹⁵E/CN.4/2002/88.

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

Calls upon States to continue to cooperate with the Special Rapporteur and to give full consideration to all of his recommendations;

Invites further voluntary contributions through the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and support for the work of the Special Rapporteur for the effective fulfilment of his mandate;

Welcomes the entry into force of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography¹⁶ and urges States parties to implement it fully, and also invites States that have not yet done so to consider signing and ratifying it;

¹⁶Resolution 54/263, annex II.

Reaffirms the obligation of States parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child2 and the Optional Protocols thereto3 to prevent the abduction of, the sale of or the trafficking in children for any purpose or in any form, including the transfer of the organs of the child for profit, and to protect children from all forms of sexual exploitation and abuse, in accordance with articles 35 and 34 of the Convention;

Calls upon States to take all appropriate steps to combat the misuse of new information and communication technologies, including the Internet, for trafficking in children and for purposes of all forms of sexual exploitation and abuse, in particular the sale of children, child prostitution, child pornography, child sex tourism, acts of paedophilia and other forms of violence and abuse against children and adolescents, and notes that the use of such technologies can also contribute to preventing and eradicating such phenomena;

Also calls upon States to criminalize and to penalize effectively, in conformity with all relevant and applicable international instruments, all forms of sexual exploitation and abuse of children, including within the family or for commercial purposes, paedophilia, child pornography, child prostitution, child sex tourism, trafficking, the sale of children and their organs, engagement in forced child labour and any other form of exploitation, while ensuring that, in the treatment by the criminal justice system of children who are victims, the best interest of the child shall be a primary consideration, and to take effective measures to ensure the prosecution of offenders, whether local or foreign, by the competent national authorities, either in the country of origin of the offender or in the country in which the abuse occurs, in accordance with due process of law;

Calls upon all Member States to take all necessary steps to strengthen international cooperation by means of multilateral, regional and bilateral arrangements for the prevention, detection, investigation, prosecution and punishment of those responsible for acts involving the sale of children, child prostitution, child pornography and child sex tourism, and in this regard calls upon Member States to promote international cooperation and coordination among their authorities, national and international non-governmental organizations and international organizations, as appropriate;

Requests States to increase cooperation and concerted action at the national, regional and international levels to prevent and dismantle networks that traffic in children;

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

Calls upon States to enact, enforce, review and revise, as appropriate, laws and to implement policies, programmes and practices to protect children from and to eliminate all forms of sexual exploitation and abuse, including commercial sexual exploitation, taking into account the particular problems posed by the use of the Internet in this regard;

Also calls upon States to identify best practices and to take all appropriate national, bilateral and multilateral measures, to allocate resources for the development of long-term policies, programmes and practices, to collect comprehensive and disaggregated gender-specific data and, while reaffirming the right of children, including adolescents, to express themselves freely, to facilitate the participation of child victims of sexual exploitation, taking into account their age and maturity, in the development of strategies to end the sale of children and their organs, sexual exploitation and abuse, including the use of children for pornography, prostitution and acts of paedophilia, and to combat existing markets;

Invites all States to take into account, as appropriate, the Yokohama Global Commitment 20017 in their efforts towards the prevention and elimination of the commercial sexual exploitation of children;

Urges States to afford one another the greatest measure of assistance in connection with investigations or criminal or, where applicable, extradition proceedings brought in respect of the offences set forth in article 3, paragraph 1, of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, including assistance in obtaining evidence at their disposal for the proceedings;

Calls upon all States to contribute to the elimination of the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography by adopting a holistic approach, addressing the contributing factors, including underdevelopment, poverty, economic disparity, inequitable socio-economic structures, dysfunctional families, irresponsible adult sexual behaviour, lack of education, urban-rural migration, gender discrimination, harmful traditional practices, armed conflict and trafficking in children;

Invites States and relevant United Nations organizations and bodies to allocate appropriate resources for the rehabilitation of child victims of sexual exploitation and abuse and to take all appropriate measures to promote their full recovery and social reintegration;

V.Protection of children affected by armed conflict

Welcomes the report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict;¹⁷

¹⁷See A/57/402.

Recognizes the progress achieved since the establishment of the mandate of the Special Representative in paragraphs 35 to 37 of General Assembly resolution 51/77 of 12 December 1996, expresses its support for his work, in particular in raising worldwide awareness and mobilizing official and public opinion for the protection of children affected by armed conflict in order to promote respect for the rights and needs of children in conflict and post-conflict situations, and recommends that the Secretary-General extend the mandate for a further period of three years;

Takes note of further developments in the United Nations system response to the issue of children affected by armed conflict, and requests the Secretary-General to undertake a comprehensive assessment of the scope and effectiveness of the United Nations system response, including recommendations for strengthening, mainstreaming, integrating and sustaining these activities, and to submit his report during the fifty-seventh session of the General Assembly, for consideration at the beginning of the fifty-eighth session of the Assembly;

Calls upon the Secretary-General and all relevant parts of the United Nations system, including the Special Representative and the United Nations Children’s Fund, to intensify further their efforts to continue to develop a concerted approach to the rights, protection and welfare of children affected by armed conflict, including, as appropriate, in the preparations for the field visits of the Special Representative and in the follow-up to such visits;

Calls upon all States and other parties concerned to continue to cooperate with the Special Representative in implementing the commitments that they have undertaken and to consider carefully all of the recommendations of the Special Representative and address the issues identified;

Welcomes the continuing support for and voluntary contributions to the work of the Special Representative in the fulfilment of his mandate;

Also welcomes the entry into force of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict¹⁸ and urges States parties to implement it fully, and also invites States that have not yet done so to consider signing and ratifying it;

¹⁸Resolution 54/263, annex I.

Urges all States and other parties to armed conflict to respect international humanitarian law and to put an end to any form of targeting of children and to attacking sites that usually have a significant presence of children, calls upon States parties to respect fully the provisions of the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949¹⁹ and the Additional Protocols thereto, of 1977,²⁰ and calls upon all parties to armed conflict to take all measures required to protect children from acts that constitute violations of international humanitarian law, including prosecution by States, within their national legal framework, of those responsible for such violations;

¹⁹United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 75, Nos. 970–973.

²⁰Ibid., vol. 1125, Nos. 17512 and 17513.

Recognizes, in this regard, the contribution of the establishment of the International Criminal Court to ending impunity for perpetrators of certain crimes committed against children, as defined in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court,²¹ which include those involving sexual violence or child soldiers, and thus to the prevention of such crimes;

²¹Official Records of the United Nations Diplomatic Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court, Rome, 15 June–17 July 1998, vol. I: Final documents (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.02.I.5), sect. A.

Stresses the importance of all relevant United Nations actors in the field improving their reporting, within their respective mandates, concerning the situation of children affected by armed conflict and giving additional attention to this question;

Condemns the abduction of children in situations of armed conflict and into armed conflict, urges States, international organizations and other parties concerned to take all appropriate measures to secure the unconditional release, rehabilitation, reintegration and reunification with their families of all abducted children, and urges States to bring the perpetrators to justice;

Calls upon States to ensure that the adoption of children in situations of armed conflict is guided by the Convention on the Rights of the Child2 and that the best interest of the child is always envisaged as a paramount consideration;

Urges States and all other parties to armed conflict to end the use of children as soldiers, to ensure their demobilization and effective disarmament and to implement effective measures for their rehabilitation, physical and psychological recovery and reintegration into society, further encourages efforts by, inter alia, regional, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations to end the use of children as soldiers in armed conflict, and emphasizes that no support shall be given to those who systematically abuse or violate the rights of children during armed conflicts;

Underlines the importance of including measures to ensure the rights of the child, inter alia, in the areas of health and nutrition, formal, informal or non-formal education, physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration, in emergency and other humanitarian assistance policies and programmes;

Reaffirms the essential role of the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council in the promotion and protection of the rights and welfare of children, takes note of the adoption of Security Council resolution 1379 (2001) on 20 November 2001, and notes the importance of the open debate on children and armed conflict held in the Security Council on 7 May 2002²² and the undertaking by the Council to give special attention to the protection, welfare and rights of children when taking action aimed at maintaining peace and security;

²²See S/PV.4528.

Calls upon all parties to armed conflict to ensure that children affected by armed conflict receive timely, effective and unhindered humanitarian assistance, in accordance with international humanitarian law;

Reaffirms agreed conclusions 1999/1 adopted by the Economic and Social Council on 23 July 1999,²³ in which the Council, inter alia, called for systematic, concerted and comprehensive inter-agency efforts on behalf of children, as well as adequate and sustainable resource allocation, to provide both immediate emergency assistance to and long-term measures for children throughout all the phases of an emergency;

²³See Official Records of the General Assembly, Fifty-fourth Session, Supplement No. 3 (A/54/3/Rev.1), chap. VI, para. 5.

Urges States to implement effective measures for the rehabilitation, physical and psychological recovery and reintegration into society of all child victims in cases of armed conflict, invites the international community to assist in this endeavour, and further emphasizes the importance of giving systematic consideration to the special needs and particular vulnerability of the girl child during conflicts and in post-conflict situations;

Also urges States to take duly into consideration measures for the special treatment and rehabilitation of child offenders;

Calls upon States and relevant United Nations bodies to continue to support national and international mine-action efforts, including by means of financial contributions, mine-awareness programmes, victim assistance and child-centred rehabilitation, and welcomes the positive effects on children of concrete legislative measures with respect to anti-personnel mines;

Invites States, multilateral donors and the private sector to cooperate and to commit the resources necessary for the early development of new and more efficient mine-detection and mine-clearance technologies for assistance in mine action;

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;

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

Calls upon States, relevant United Nations organizations and bodies and regional organizations to integrate the rights of the child into all activities in conflict and post-conflict situations, including training programmes and emergency relief operations, country programmes and field operations aimed at promoting peace and preventing and resolving conflict, as well as the negotiation and implementation of peace agreements, and, given the long-term consequences for society, underlines the importance of including specific provisions for children, including resources, in peace agreements and in arrangements negotiated by parties;

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;

Calls upon Member States, the United Nations system and non-governmental organizations to encourage the involvement of young people in activities concerning the protection of children affected by armed conflict, including programmes for reconciliation, peace consolidation, peace-building and children-to-children networks;

Notes with appreciation the appointment by the Secretary-General of child protection advisers in United Nations peacekeeping missions, and encourages him to continue to appoint such advisers, where appropriate, to existing and future peacekeeping operations;

Also notes with appreciation the Winnipeg Agenda for War-Affected Children²⁴ and efforts by regional organizations to include prominently in their policies and programmes the rights and protection of children affected by armed conflict;

²⁴A/55/467-S/2000/973, annex.

VI.Progressive elimination 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 or to interfere with the child’s education or to be harmful to the child’s health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development;

Calls upon all States that have not yet done so to consider ratifying the conventions of the International Labour Organization relating to child labour, in particular the Convention concerning Forced or Compulsory Labour, 1930 (Convention No. 29), the Convention concerning Minimum Age for Admission to Employment, 1973 (Convention No. 138) and the Convention concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour, 1999 (Convention No. 182), and to implement those conventions;

Calls upon all States to translate into concrete action their commitment to the progressive and effective elimination of child labour contrary to accepted international standards, and urges them, inter alia, to eliminate immediately the worst forms of child labour as set out in International Labour Organization Convention No. 182 of 1999;

Also calls upon all States to assess and systematically examine the magnitude, nature and causes of child labour and to elaborate and implement strategies for the elimination of child labour contrary to accepted international standards, giving special attention to specific dangers faced by girls, as well as to the rehabilitation and social reintegration of the children concerned;

Recognizes that primary education is one of the main instruments for reintegrating child workers, calls upon all States to recognize the right to education by making primary education compulsory and to ensure that all children have equal access to free primary education as a key strategy to prevent child labour, and recognizes, in particular, the important role of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund in this regard;

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 and in attaining the objective of eliminating child labour contrary to accepted international standards;

Calls upon all States to strengthen cooperation and coordination at the national and international levels to address effectively the problem of child labour, in close cooperation with, inter alia, the International Labour Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund;

VII.Decides:

To request the Secretary-General to prepare a report on progress achieved in realizing the commitments set out in the final document of the twenty-seventh special session of the General Assembly, entitled “A world fit for children”,6 with a view to identifying problems and constraints and making recommendations on the action needed to achieve further progress, and to submit his report to the General Assembly at its fifty-eighth session;

To include in the provisional agenda of its fifty-eighth session the item entitled “Follow-up to the outcome of the special session on children”, which will be considered in plenary meeting;

To request the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its fifty-eighth session a report on the rights of the child containing information on the status of the Convention on the Rights of the Child2 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, taking into account the outcome document adopted by the General Assembly at its special session on children and bearing in mind existing mandates and reports of relevant bodies;

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