CHILDREN's Rights

➡️ Children's Rights – Human Rights for the Next Generation

Children are the bearers of hope and the future of our world. They embody innocence, curiosity, and the potential for positive change. Unfortunately, millions of children around the world face serious challenges and rights abuses.

Children have the right to physical protection, universal state-paid education, health care, civil rights, food and water, age-appropriate laws, and freedom from discrimination and abuse.

Jump straight to our guide on ➡️ Children's Rights

Explore our comprehensive resources on –

• Organisations and important platforms

• Girls' rights

• Child protection

• Hunger and malnutrition

• Child labour

• Children in conflict zones and child soldiers

• The rights of transgender children

➡️ Be sure to also check out our comprehensive guides on Youth and Education.

Children's rights are protected by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), a legally binding agreement signed by 196 countries. It outlines the fundamental rights of every child, regardless of their race, religion, place of birth, or abilities. It is the most widely ratified international human rights treaty in history.

Despite this, millions of children still face the harsh realities of poverty, inequality and social exclusion. There are 2.4 billion children in the world, equating to 30% of the entire population, yet two out of three child-related Sustainable Development Goal targets require immediate acceleration or are not being monitored.

• 250 million children are not in school

• 150 million children live on the streets

• 720 million women alive today were married as children

• There are more than 160 million children forced into child labour around the world

• Tens of thousands of child soldiers are estimated to be recruited and used in conflicts worldwide - 4 out of 10 are girls

• Over 473 million children now live in areas affected by conflict

• Two million children were born as refugees between 2018 and 2023

• Forty-five million young children across the globe suffer from severe malnutrition every year

German speakers can visit our partner site, Bessere Welt Info, for our excellent resource on Kinderrechte weltweit.

Child Poverty

In 2024, one billion children were living in absolute poverty around the world - this figure continues to rise year on year. A child experiencing poverty lives in conditions that do not meet their basic needs, including food, clean water, shelter, adequate medical care, and education.

Children are more likely to live in poverty than adults and are more vulnerable to its effects, which, in many cases, can last a lifetime. Children's cognitive and physical development is hindered, and their social and economic opportunities are severely limited. Children living in poverty have shorter life expectancies, high mortality rates, higher likelihood of contracting preventable diseases, as well as living with the inevitable insecurity, stress, and instability.

Poverty is also a key driver of child labour as parents are forced to employ their children to generate extra income. Poverty and child labour form a vicious cycle; without tackling one, we cannot eradicate the other.

Almost half of those children forced into work are engaged in hazardous tasks that endanger their health and development. Child labour can also lead to slavery, trafficking, and sexual exploitation. Children are almost always cut off from schooling. Migrant and refugee children are particularly vulnerable to the trappings of child labour.

Children and War

Almost 1 in 5 children around the world are either living in or fleeing from conflict zones. Many of these children are orphaned or have become separated from their parents. The worst affected areas are Gaza, Sudan, Haiti, Syria, Ukraine, and Yemen.

Children exposed to the horrors of war witness violence, death, the loss of their families, and their sense of safety and stability. They have their homes and belongings stripped away, are forced away from their communities, have little chance of education, and suffer in the grips of serious humanitarian crises, including famine, disease, and extreme poverty. Children are especially vulnerable to abuse, exploitation, and trafficking during armed conflicts.

These experiences leave not only physical but also emotional and psychological scars that can affect their entire lives.

Over half of the world's refugees are children; war is the main driver of their displacement. The vast majority of refugees are hosted in developing countries which simply do not have the resources to deal with such large numbers. Refugee camps are often deplorable places to live, especially for a child, where food, water, sanitation, the chance of an education, and even privacy are in short supply.

Every year, thousands of children are recruited by armed forces or groups and used as soldiers, cooks, spies, guards and for sexual exploitation. The use of child soldiers is a grave violation of child rights and international humanitarian law.

Girls Rights

Girls are the most excluded social group in the world. Girls' are discriminated against by their communities, their families, society, and even by legal frameworks which fail to provide equal protection for girls and boys.

Here are the facts:

• 119 million girls are out of school

• 41,000 girls are forced into marriage every day

• Half of all sexual assaults are committed against girls under 16 years old

• 200 million women and girls alive today are living with the results of the harmful practice of female genital mutilation, which causes serious physical and psychological damage and violates the basic human rights of girls and young women

We must protect our girls. Education is an essential tool in ending the cycle of poverty, abuse, exploitation, and violence. Evidence tells us that educated women tend to be more informed about nutrition and healthcare, have fewer children, have healthier children, marry later, earn higher incomes, participate in the decisions that most affect them, and build better futures for themselves and their families.

The Right to Education

Education is a fundamental human right that raises young people out of poverty, levels inequalities and ensures sustainable development. Today, 250 million children and youth are out of school, and 763 million adults are illiterate. Their right to education has unacceptably been denied.

Barriers to education include - Lack of access, lack of suitably trained teachers, lack of school supplies or even basic infrastructure, discrimination, child marriage, pregnancy, conflict, lack of menstrual hygiene facilities, child labour, inability to pay school fees and lack of government funding, hunger, poor health, and malnutrition.

Education and reducing information poverty are a means to improve society as a whole and a long-term investment with increasing returns. It can be used as an effective tool to address and prevent future global challenges, such as climate change, erosion of democracy, persistent inequalities, conflict, violence, discrimination, and hate.

The Right to Health and Healthcare

The right to health guarantees access to vital healthcare infrastructure and medical professionals, medicines, vaccinations, clean water, sanitation, a healthy diet, and health education that provides children with basic knowledge of diet, cleanliness, and disease prevention.

Children are more at risk of health complications and illness. Without health, it is impossible to reach our full potential mentally and physically.

Healthcare deserts describe a situation where basic services are either absent or too far away to be reached, where services are unaffordable, or of such poor quality that people don't bother trying to access them.

There are 40 million children who currently have no access to basic healthcare. Unequal access to vaccines means that 20 million children have not received basic vaccinations. 1.5 million children under five die from vaccine-preventable diseases every year.

Acute malnutrition affects an estimated 45 million children under the age of 5 at any given time. Every year, up to two million of these children die as a result.

One in five children globally does not have enough water to meet their everyday needs. One billion lack safely managed sanitation, and 149 million children do not have access to indoor plumbed toilets.

159 million children and adolescents aged 5-19 years are now living with obesity and its associated risks of cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

Children's Rights for a Better World

It is our responsibility to take action to ensure that every child's rights are respected by combating child poverty, ending conflict, and making education accessible to all.

Only through joint efforts and global cooperation can we ensure that all children have the opportunity to grow into healthy, safe, happy adults who are able to achieve their full potential.

Recognising and implementing children's rights are crucial to creating a fairer, more peaceful, and sustainable world for everyone. It requires the commitment of governments, international organisations, civil society, and every one of us to ensure that the rights of all children are respected, protected, and guaranteed.

Author: Rachael Mellor 10.01.25, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

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