A Commentary on the UNCRC, Article 3

This volume constitutes a commentary on Article 3 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. It is part of the series, A Commentary on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which provides an article by article analysis of all substantive, organizational and procedural provisions of the CRC and its two Optional Protocols. For every article, a comparison with related human rights provisions is made, followed by an in-depth exploration of the nature and scope of State obligations deriving from that article. The series constitutes an essential tool for actors in the field of children’s rights, including academics, students, judges, grassroots workers, governmental, non- governmental and international officers.

A Commentary on the UNCRC, Article 2

This volume constitutes a commentary on Article 2 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. It is part of the series, A Commentary on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which provides an article by article analysis of all substantive, organizational and procedural provisions of the CRC and its two Optional Protocols. For every article, a comparison with related human rights provisions is made, followed by an in-depth exploration of the nature and scope of State obligations deriving from that article. The series constitutes an essential tool for actors in the field of children’s rights, including academics, students, judges, grassroots workers, governmental, non-governmental and international officers.

What’s Wrong with Children’s Rights

“Children’s rights”: the phrase has been a legal battle cry for twenty-five years. But as this provocative book by a nationally renowned expert on children’s legal standing argues, it is neither possible nor desirable to isolate children from the interests of their parents, or those of society as a whole.

From foster care to adoption to visitation rights and beyond, Martin Guggenheim offers a trenchant analysis of the most significant debates in the children’s rights movement, particularly those that treat children’s interests as antagonistic to those of their parents. Guggenheim argues that “children’s rights” can serve as a screen for the interests of adults, who may have more to gain than the children for whom they claim to speak. More important, this book suggests that children’s interests are not the only ones or the primary ones to which adults should attend, and that a “best interests of the child” standard often fails as a meaningful test for determining how best to decide disputes about children.

The nature of child-headed households in Rakai District, Uganda

This report is a result of a study on the situation in child headed households conducted by a team of development practitioners working for several NGOs involved with orphans and other vulnerable children in Rakai District. The rationale for this specific effort arose from the desire to get a better understanding of the magnitude of the Child headed household problem in Rakai District.

In the report, a situation analysis of children under the age of 18 who are heads of households is presented. A Child headed household is defined as that household primarily headed by a child (below the age of 18), but also recognized by the local community as being independent. In these households, the child takes full responsibility of all duties normally performed by an adult head in a conventional household. Apart from attempting to categorize the different types of Child headed households, the study goes further to understand coping potential and to investigate the accessibility of children living in child-headed households, to key basic social services from government and other service providers. Out of the data collected, a database on all child-headed households in Rakai district has been developed.

Rakai District, located in Southern Uganda was established as a district in 1974 and is comprised of 23 sub counties. The recent 2002 population and housing census recorded the district population at 471 806 persons (239, 544 female), an increase of 18.7% since the 1991 population and housing census. Ninety-four (94%) of the population is rural based. Poverty is endemic in the district with 70% of all households estimated to survive on less than Ugshs. 5,000 per week (US$ 3).

Many of the problems associated with poverty have been exacerbated by the HIV / AIDS epidemic. The first AIDS cases in Uganda were recorded in Rakai district in 1982 and today, the prevalence rate among adults aged 15-54 is estimated at 9.2% as compared to the national average of 6.3% despite strong efforts by government, mission groups and NGOs aimed at combating its spread. Although the available statistics reveal a continuous decline in HIV / AIDS prevalence in Rakai from 30% in 1992 to 9.2% in 2001, many challenging effects have been marked or identified such as orphans who have lost one or both parents. The study revealed that there are 975 CHH in the district many of which are headed by children below the age 18. CHH are categorised into those living alone (58%), children who have eloped to start families (11.6%), those living with invalid adults (23.8%) and CHH frequently visited by adult relatives. About seventy-six (76.6%) of the households are headed by males. Circumstances leading to the occurrence of CHH include among others, the loss of parents, abandonment, and juvenile delinquency and invalidity of surviving adults.

Where the heart is

meeting the psychosocial needs of young children in the context of HIV/AIDS

An output of a series of workshops on psychosocial support held in 2004-2005 by the Bernard van Leer Foundation and the Coalition on Children Affected by AIDS. Authors Linda Richter, Geoff Foster and Lorraine Sherr discuss the issues surrounding psychosocial care and support for children made vulnerable by the HIV/AIDS pandemic and make recommendations for future priorities and programming directions. Includes the “”Call To Action”” for Toronto 2006.

Implementation Handbook for the Convention on the Rights of the Child

The newly revised third edition of the Handbook provides a detailed reference for the implementation of law, policy and practice to promote and protect the rights of children. It brings together under each article an analysis of the Committee on the Right of the Child’s growing interpretation during its first fourteen years and examination of over 300 of its Concluding Observations following consideration of States’ reports. The Handbook also provides a concise description of the role, power and procedures, and developing activities of the Committee and its appendices include a guide to related United Nations bodies and texts of key instruments.

Rechten van het kind en ouderlijke verantwoordelijkheid

Ieder kind, waar ook ter wereld, heeft rechten. Deze rechten zijn, naast algemene verdragen, tevens vastgelegd in een speciaal op kinderen gericht verdrag: het Internationaal Verdrag inzake de Rechten van het Kind (IVRK). Artikel 3 van het IVRK bepaalt, dat het ‘belang van het kind’ altijd de eerste overweging moet zijn bij alle maatregelen betreffende het kind. Dit leidende beginsel doet zijn invloed gevoelen in de gehele lezing van het IVRK. Een belangrijke doelstelling van het verdrag is immers de ‘volledige en harmonische ontplooiing van de persoonlijkheid van ieder kind’. Bij de verwezenlijking van de in het IVRK geformuleerde rechten vervullen de ouders een spilfunctie. Zij hebben de taak ‘te voorzien in passende leiding en begeleiding bij de uitoefening door het kind van de in het Verdrag erkende rechten’, zo bepaalt artikel 5 van het Verdrag. De overheid dient alles te doen wat in haar vermogen ligt om de ouders daarbij te ondersteunen (artikel 18).
Zowel de ouders als de overheid lijken in toenemende mate problemen te ondervinden met de invulling van die verantwoordelijkheid. Klassieke vragen naar de reikwijdte van deze verantwoordelijkheid van de ouders en de overheid blijven onverminderd van belang en lijken zelfs relevanter dan ooit. Het thema ‘Parental Responsibilities’ blijft aldus in beweging.

Deze uitgave in de Ars Aequi Rechten van het Kindreeks bevat een vijftiental bijdragen, dat het thema ‘ouderlijke verantwoordelijkheid en rechten van het kind’ vanuit diverse gezichtspunten belicht. Naast rechtsgeleerden geven auteurs uit verschillende takken van de wetenschap en de praktijk, zoals de pedagogiek en de psychiatrie, inzicht in verschillende aspecten van het thema. De onderwerpen variëren van draagmoederschap, gerechtelijke vaststelling van vaderschap, kinderontvoering en alimentatie, tot godsdienstvrijheid van het kind, de verantwoordelijkheid van ouders van kinderen die topsport beoefenen, en de behandeling van jeugdige delinquenten.

De redactie beoogt met deze bundel een bijdrage te leveren aan de discussie over het belangrijke thema kinderrechten en de rol die ouders en overheid vervullen bij de verwezenlijking daarvan.

Evaluation Child Rights Governance Regional Programme in West Africa

All countries in West Africa have ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC). However, these instruments are not widely known at the national level, and the states do not usually respect their commitment to submit periodic reports to the mandated reporting mechanisms. Most countries have overdue reports to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (the UN Committee) and other human and child rights mechanisms, and reporting to the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Children (ACERWC) is still not considered to be a priority. Resource allocations for child rights are often lower than any other sectors and are not used efficiently.

Save the Children Sweden (SCS) began its work in West Africa in 1977 providing support to maternal and child health services in Cape Verde. The work of SCS developed progressively from 2002 onwards from a quite fragmented child rights promotion project with individual partner organisations in a few countries to a child rights governance (CRG) regional programme supporting child rights coalitions at both the national and regional levels. The overall objective of the regional CRG programme has been to push states in West Africa to implement the UNCRC, the ACRWC, and other international and regional human rights instruments related to child rights by supporting civil society in its watchdog role and empowering children to claim their rights.

SCS has initiated this evaluation to assess the impact of the Child Rights Governance Regional Programme as well as to analyse issues that might undermine the programme’s sustainability. The main focus of this evaluation is on the results that were achieved during the period 2009 to 2014. The evaluation is expected to provide Save the Children (SC) with lessons learned and with evidence of the added value and limitations of the CRG regional programme as well as to feed into the discussion with Save the Children International (SCI) and its partners and stakeholders on the strengths and weaknesses of the regional approach taken by the CRG regional programme.

Research that Drives Change

Conceptualizing and conducting nationally led violence prevention research

Globally, studies have demonstrated that children in every society are affected by physical, sexual and emotional violence. The drive to both quantify and qualify violence through data and research has been powerful: discourse among policy makers is shifting from “this does not happen here” to “what is driving this?” and “how can we address it?” To help answer these questions, the MultiCountry Study on the Drivers of Violence Affecting Children – conducted in Italy, Viet Nam, Peru and Zimbabwe – sought to disentangle the complex and often interrelated underlying causes of violence affecting children (VAC) in these four countries.

Led by the UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti with its academic partner, the University of Edinburgh, the Study was conducted by national research teams comprised of government, practitioners and academic researchers in each of the four countries. Drawing on human-centred principles, the Study used an iterative approach which put national ownership and co-creation at its core. Government partners were actively engaged as co-researchers and all data analysis was conducted in-country by government statisticians. Facilitating and prioritizing national meaningmaking through dialogue and joint analysis and synthesis of findings was also a key part of the Study design.

The study findings, along with learning from the process itself, led to the development of a new child-centred and integrated framework, which proposes a process by which interdisciplinary coalitions of researchers, practitioners and policymakers can understand violence affecting children and what can be done to prevent it. Using data to drive change, our proposed Child-Centred and Integrated Framework for Violence Prevention serves to situate national findings according to a child’s social ecology, making clear how institutional and structural drivers and risk/protective factors together shape the many risks and opportunities of childhood around the world.

The African Report on Child Well-being 2018

Progress in the child-friendliness of African governments

This report tracks governments’ performance in improving the condition and wellbeing of children, and examines how countries are doing, for example, vis-à-vis their neighbours and over the years. We did this using the Child-Friendliness Index (CFI), a rights-based statistical methodology that ACPF developed and recently revised to measure, monitor and promote government performance in realising the rights and wellbeing of children.

This report draws attention to the fact that although many African governments have become child-friendly over the last ten years, there are equally many that are locked in the “less” or “least child-friendly” categories for many years now. Millions of children are therefore not benefitting from the legal protection they deserve and from the quality education, health and nutrition and minimum levels of social protection they very much need. It also draws attention to the widespread prevalence of disturbing levels of undernutrition and poor quality of education – the two major threats to the wellbeing of Africa’s children. The report therefore concludes with one exceptionally important and alarming message, namely that Africa is on the verge of a serious human development crisis with grave consequences for the social and economic wellbeing of its people and for the future of the continent.