Rights of the Child

A/RES/64/146View PDF

Who created this mandate?

A document of the General Assembly, under agenda item 65aPromotion and protection of the rights of children, published in 2010.

What other versions does this mandate have?

23 versions · 2003–2025

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

2025A/RES/80/190Rights of the childLatestCompare with previous version
2023A/RES/78/187Rights of the childCompare with previous version
2022A/RES/76/147Rights of the childCompare with previous version
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Who cites this mandate in the budget?

1 entity

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Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

1 report of the Secretary-General submitted under this mandate, 2010.

2010A/65/206Status of the Convention on the Rights of the Child report of the Secretary-General

Identified automatically from the metadata in each report’s UN Digital Library catalogue record.

What does this mandate say?

61 operative paragraphs

I.Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Optional Protocols thereto

Commemorates the twentieth anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the ChildError: Reference source not found and the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, which provided a foundation for the Convention, and takes this opportunity to call for the effective implementation of the Convention by all States parties to ensure that all children may fully enjoy all their human rights and fundamental freedoms;

Reaffirms paragraphs 1 to 8 of its resolution 63/241, and urges States that have not yet done so to become parties to the Convention and the Optional Protocols theretoError: Reference source not found as a matter of priority and to implement them fully;

Calls upon States parties to withdraw reservations that are incompatible with the object and purpose of the Convention or the Optional Protocols thereto and to consider reviewing regularly other reservations with a view to withdrawing them in accordance with the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action;Error: Reference source not found

Encourages States parties, in implementing the provisions of the Convention and the Optional Protocols thereto, to take duly into account the recommendations, observations and general comments of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, including, inter alia, general comment No. 12 (2009) entitled “The right of the child to be heard”;

Welcomes actions of the Committee to monitor the implementation by State parties of the Convention, and notes with appreciation its actions to follow up on its concluding observations and recommendations, and in this regard underlines in particular the regional workshops and the participation of the Committee in national-level initiatives;

Recalls Human Rights Council resolution 10/14 of 26 March 2009 entitled “Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Optional Protocols thereto”;

II.Promotion and protection of the rights of the child and non-discrimination against children

Non-discrimination

Reaffirms paragraphs 9 to 11 of its resolution 63/241, and calls upon States to ensure the enjoyment by children of all their civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights without discrimination of any kind;

Registration, family relations and adoption or other forms of alternative care

Also reaffirms paragraphs 12 to 16 of its resolution 63/241, and urges all States parties to intensify their efforts to comply with their obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the ChildError: Reference source not found to protect children in matters relating to registration, family relations and adoption or other forms of alternative care, and, in cases of international parental or familial child abduction, encourages States to facilitate, inter alia, the return of the child to the country in which he or she resided immediately before the removal or retention;

Welcomes the accomplishment of the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children and the decision of the Human Rights Council, by its resolution 11/7 of 17 June 2009, to submit them to the General Assembly for action;

Economic and social well-being of children, eradication of poverty, right to education, right to enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health and right to food

Reaffirms paragraphs 17 to 26 of its resolution 63/241, paragraphs 42 to 52 of its resolution 61/146 of 19 December 2006, on the theme of children and poverty, and paragraphs 37 to 42 of its resolution 60/231 of 23 December 2005, on the theme of children infected with and affected by HIV/AIDS, and calls upon all States and the international community to create an environment in which the well-being of the child is ensured, including by strengthening international cooperation in this field and by implementing their previous commitments relating to poverty eradication, the right to education, the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, including efforts to address the situation of children living with or affected by HIV/AIDS and to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV, the right to food for all and the right to an adequate standard of living, including housing and clothing;

Recognizes the threat to the achievement of the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals, posed by the global financial and economic crisis, which is connected to multiple, interrelated global crises and challenges, such as the food crisis and continuing food insecurity, volatile energy and commodity prices and climate change, and calls upon States to address, in their response to this crisis, any impact on the full enjoyment of the rights of children;

Elimination of violence against children

Reaffirms paragraphs 27 to 32 of its resolution 63/241 and paragraphs 47 to 62 of its resolution 62/141 of 18 December 2007, on the theme of elimination of violence against children, condemns all forms of violence against children, and urges all States to implement the measures set out in paragraph 27 of its resolution 63/241;

Welcomes the appointment of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on violence against children, and encourages all States, requests United Nations entities and agencies and invites regional organizations and civil society, including non-governmental organizations, to cooperate with the Special Representative and provide support, including financial support, to her for the effective and independent performance of her mandate, as set out in resolution 62/141, and in promoting the further implementation of the recommendations of the United Nations study on violence against children, while promoting and ensuring country ownership and national plans and programmes in this regard, and calls upon States and institutions concerned, and invites the private sector, to provide voluntary contributions for that purpose;

Promoting and protecting the rights of children, including children in particularly difficult situations

Reaffirms paragraphs 34 to 42 of its resolution 63/241, and calls upon all States to promote and protect all human rights of all children in particularly difficult situations and to implement programmes and measures that provide them with special protection and assistance, including access to health care, education and social services, as well as, where appropriate and feasible, voluntary repatriation, reintegration, family tracing and family reunification, in particular for children who are unaccompanied, and to ensure that the best interests of the child are accorded a primary consideration;

Children alleged to have infringed or recognized as having infringed penal law and children of persons alleged to have infringed or recognized as having infringed penal law

Also reaffirms paragraphs 43 to 47 of its resolution 63/241, and calls upon all States to respect and protect the rights of children alleged to have infringed or recognized as having infringed penal law, as well as children of persons alleged to have infringed or recognized as having infringed penal law;

Prevention and eradication of the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography

Further reaffirms paragraphs 48 to 50 of its resolution 63/241, and calls upon all States to prevent, criminalize, prosecute and punish all forms of sale of children, including for the purposes of transfer of organs of the child for profit, child slavery, commercial sexual exploitation of children, child prostitution and child pornography, with the aim of eradicating those practices and the use of the Internet and other information and communications technologies for these purposes, to combat the existence of a market that encourages such criminal practices and take measures to eliminate the demand that fosters them, as well as to address the needs of victims effectively and take effective measures against the criminalization of children who are victims of exploitation;

Welcomes the Third World Congress against Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 25 to 28 November 2008, and the Rio de Janeiro Declaration and Call for Action to Prevent and Stop Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents;

Calls upon all States to enact and enforce necessary legislative or other measures, in cooperation with relevant stakeholders, to prevent the distribution over the Internet of child pornography and including depictions of child sexual abuse, ensuring that adequate mechanisms are in place to enable reporting and removal of such material and that its creators, distributors and collectors are prosecuted as appropriate;

Children affected by armed conflict

Reaffirms paragraphs 51 to 63 of its resolution 63/241, condemns in the strongest terms all violations and abuses committed against children affected by armed conflict, and in this regard urges all States and other parties to armed conflict that are engaged, in contravention of applicable international law, including humanitarian law, in recruitment and use of children, in patterns of killing and maiming of children and/or rape and other sexual violence against children, as well as in all other violations and abuses against children, to take time-bound and effective measures to end them, and urges all States, United Nations agencies, funds and programmes, other relevant international and regional organizations and civil society to continue to give serious attention to, and to protect and assist child victims of, all violations and abuses committed against children in situations of armed conflict, in accordance with international humanitarian law, including the First to Fourth Geneva Conventions;

Also reaffirms the essential roles of the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council and the Human Rights Council for the promotion and protection of the rights and welfare of children, including children affected by armed conflict, notes the increasing role played by the Security Council in ensuring protection for children affected by armed conflict, and notes also the activities undertaken by the Peacebuilding Commission, within its mandate, in areas that promote and contribute to the enjoyment of the rights and welfare of children;

Notes with appreciation the steps taken regarding Security Council resolutions 1539 (2004) of 22 April 2004 and 1612 (2005) of 26 July 2005, the adoption of Council resolution 1882 (2009) on 4 August 2009 and the efforts of the Secretary-General to implement the monitoring and reporting mechanism on children and armed conflict in accordance with those resolutions, with the participation of and in cooperation with national Governments and relevant United Nations and civil society actors, including at the country level, requests the Secretary-General to ensure that information collected and communicated by the monitoring and reporting mechanism is accurate, objective, reliable and verifiable, and in this regard encourages the work and the deployment, as appropriate, of United Nations child protection advisers in peacekeeping operations and political and peacebuilding missions;

Child labour

Reaffirms paragraphs 64 to 80 of its resolution 63/241, on the theme of child labour, and calls upon all States to translate into concrete action their commitment to the progressive and effective elimination of child labour 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 and to eliminate immediately the worst forms of child labour;

Takes note with appreciation of the report of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization entitled “Education for All: Global Monitoring Report 2009”, which emphasizes the need to increase the quality of education as a way to attract and keep children in school, as a tool in the prevention and elimination of child labour, and calls upon all States to take fully into account the report of the International Labour Organization entitled “The end of child labour: within reach” and the global action plan endorsed by the Governing Body of the International Labour Office in 2006 in their national efforts to tackle child labour and to monitor progress towards meeting the target of eliminating the worst forms of child labour by 2016;

III.The right of the child to express his or her views freely in all matters affecting him or her

Recognizes that the child who is capable of forming his or her own views should be assured the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting him or her, the views of the child being given due weight in accordance with his or her age and maturity, referred to in the present resolution as “the right to be heard”;

Reaffirms that the general principle of participation forms part of the framework for the interpretation and implementation of all other rights incorporated in the Convention on the Rights of the Child;Error: Reference source not found

Recognizes that, in the exercise by the child of his or her right to be heard, States shall respect the responsibilities, rights and duties of parents or, where applicable, the members of the extended family or community, as provided for by local custom, legal guardians or other persons legally responsible for the child to provide, in a manner consistent with the age, maturity and evolving capacities of the child, appropriate direction and guidance;

Reaffirms the international agreement on the 2015 target date for achieving universal primary education in all countries, emphasizes, recognizing the impact and interlinkage of poverty and education on the full enjoyment by children of the right to be heard and to participate, that literacy and universal access to free and compulsory primary education of good quality for all children are a key element in promoting the right of the child to be heard, and encourages international cooperation in this regard, including regional cooperation as well as South-South cooperation;

Recognizes that the free engagement of children in extracurricular activities, such as cultural, artistic, recreational, leisure, ecological and sports activities at the local and national levels, could develop the ability of children to express their views;

Also recognizes the key role that can be played by educational institutions and community-based organizations and projects, as well as by different local and national institutions, such as children’s organizations and parliaments, in assuring the meaningful participation of children, and in this regard encourages States to ensure the institutionalization of children’s participation and encourage the active consultation of children and the consideration of their views in all matters affecting them, in accordance with their age and maturity and their evolving capacities;

Further recognizes the role that can be played by the private sector, including the media, in promoting the participation and active consultation of children in issues affecting them, and stresses the importance of these actors taking into account the best interests of the child;

Expresses deep concern that, despite the recognition of children as rights holders entitled to be heard on all matters affecting them, children are seldom seriously consulted and involved in such matters owing to a variety of constraints and impediments and that the full implementation of this right in many parts of the world has yet to be fully realized;

Recognizes that the full enjoyment of the right of the child to be heard and to participate requires adults to adopt an appropriate child-centred attitude, listening to children and respecting their rights and individual points of view;

Calls upon all States:

To assure that children are given the opportunity to be heard on all matters affecting them, without discrimination on any grounds, by adopting and/or continuing to implement regulations and arrangements that provide for and encourage, as appropriate, the participation of children in all settings, including within the family, in school and in their communities, and that are firmly anchored in laws and institutional codes and are regularly evaluated with regard to their effectiveness;

To designate, establish or strengthen relevant governmental structures for children, including, where appropriate, ministers in charge of children’s issues and independent ombudspersons for children, have mechanisms in place for allowing and promoting the involvement and participation of children in the formulation and implementation of public policies, in particular those designed to meet national goals and targets for children and adolescents, and ensure adequate and systematic training in the rights of the child for professional groups working with and for children;

To involve children, as appropriate, in the planning, design, implementation and evaluation of the national plans of action set out in the document entitled “A world fit for children”Error: Reference source not found that relate to the rights of the child, in recognition of the role of the child as a core stakeholder in the process;

To develop policies and effective mechanisms at the local and national levels to enable children to be heard and to participate safely and meaningfully in the monitoring and reporting processes related to the implementation of the Convention;

To provide support to children and adolescents to enable them to form and register their own associations and other child- and adolescent-led initiatives, in conformity with national and international law;

To ensure that funding for the participation of children is considered in resource allocation and that policies and programmes to facilitate the participation of children are institutionalized and fully implemented;

To ensure the equal participation of girls, including adolescents, on the basis of non-discrimination and in partnership with boys, including adolescents, in the development of strategies and the implementation of action aimed at achieving gender equality, development, non-violence and peace;

To support the integration, in a systematic manner, of the participation and safe and meaningful involvement of children in United Nations activities and processes that are related to the promotion and protection of the rights of the child;

To support the participation of children in initiatives to prevent and respond to violence against children, including in the work of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on violence against children;

To take measures to support the participation of children in the design and implementation of preventive and comprehensive anti-bullying policies;

To address all the root causes preventing children from exercising their right to be heard and to be consulted on matters affecting them; inform children, parents, guardians, other caregivers and the general public about the rights of the child; and raise awareness of the importance and benefits of the participation of children in society, including through partnerships with civil society, the private sector and the media, while being attentive to their influence on children;

To take appropriate measures to ensure the full realization of the right to education on the basis of equal opportunity for every child, including by providing accessible, free and compulsory primary education directed to the development of the personality, talents and abilities of the child to their fullest potential, in recognition of the importance of education to civic engagement by children and to their full enjoyment of the right to be heard and to participate in all matters affecting them;

To develop and implement policies and programmes to promote the creation by public authorities, parents, guardians, other caregivers and other adults working with or for children of a safe and enabling environment based on trust, information-sharing, the capacity to listen and sound guidance that is conducive to the informed and voluntary participation of children, including in decision-making processes;

To take all appropriate measures to promote the active involvement of parents, professionals and relevant authorities in the creation of opportunities for children to exercise their right to be heard within their everyday activities in all relevant settings, including by providing training in the necessary skills;

To provide support to girls, including adolescents, if needed, to voice their views and for their views to be given due weight, and adopt measures to eliminate gender stereotypes that undermine and place severe limitations on girls in the enjoyment of their right to be heard;

To ensure that child-sensitive procedures are made available to children and their representatives so that children have access to means of facilitating effective remedies for any breaches of any of their rights arising from the Convention through independent advice, advocacy and complaint procedures, including justice mechanisms, and that their views are heard when they are involved or their interests are concerned in judicial or administrative procedures in a manner consistent with the procedural rules of national law;

To ensure that, when the necessary measures are taken to prevent and punish the wrongful removal of children who are subjected to enforced disappearance, of children whose father, mother or legal guardian is subjected to enforced disappearance or of children born during the captivity of a mother subjected to enforced disappearance, in accordance with legal procedures and applicable international agreements, the right of the child to be heard is respected, and that the best interests of the child are a primary consideration;

To encourage and enable children affected by natural and man-made disasters and complex emergencies, in particular adolescents, to participate in analysing their situations and future prospects in crisis, post-crisis and transition processes, while ensuring that such participation is in accordance with their age, maturity and evolving capacities and is consistent with the best interests of the child and recognizing that appropriate care needs to be taken to protect children from exposure to situations that are likely to be traumatic or harmful;

To take measures to ensure the enjoyment of the right to be heard by children belonging to minorities and/or vulnerable groups, including migrant children and indigenous children within their cultural values or ethnic identities;

To adopt measures, including providing or promoting the use of accessible means, modes and formats of communication, to facilitate the enjoyment of the right to be heard by children with disabilities;

IV.Follow-up

Decides:

To request the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its sixty-fifth session a comprehensive report on the rights of the child containing information on the status of the Convention on the Rights of the ChildError: Reference source not found and the issues addressed in the present resolution, with a focus on implementing child rights in early childhood;

To request the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict to continue to submit reports to the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council on the activities undertaken in the discharge of her mandate, including information on her field visits and on the progress achieved and the challenges remaining on the children and armed conflict agenda;

To request the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on violence against children to submit annual reports to the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council on the activities undertaken in the discharge of her mandate;

To request the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography to submit reports to the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council on the activities undertaken in the discharge of her mandate;

To invite the Chair of the Committee on the Rights of the Child to present an oral report on the work of the Committee to the General Assembly at its sixty-fifth session as a way to enhance communication between the Assembly and the Committee;

To invite all Member States, organizations of the United Nations system, non-governmental organizations and individuals to observe the twentieth anniversary of the adoption of the Convention;

To continue its consideration of the question at its sixty-fifth session under the item entitled “Promotion and protection of the rights of children”, focusing section III of the resolution on the rights of the child on implementing child rights in early childhood.

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