The story of a street child

My name is Amerigo.. I am 13 years old and I live on the street, alone. My mother, who is separated from my father, does not want me. My father lives far away. I want to go to him but he won’t take me either.
 

The streets are now my home. I used to collect trash and sell it to a vendor. I stopped doing that after I had a serious infection and a doctor told me to stay away from the trash dump. Once I worked for an ice cream shop owner and sold ice cream on the beach. The work was difficult and painful. The ice cream box is quite heavy when it is full. Now I shoe shine. It is very hard work. I am always hungry, and I don’t know where I will sleep the next night. I would like to live in my own home and sleep there in peace. The nights are very cold in winter. You can die of cold in the street.

CRC is an international human rights treaty created with the goal of realising all rights of children everywhere. It has been ratified by virtually the entire community of nations. The 191 ratifying States have freely accepted and pledged to transform the provisions of the CRC into reality through administrative, legislative, judicial and other measures.

Who is a child?

The Convention defines a child as a human being up to the age of 18. The idea that children have special needs has now given way to the conviction that children have the same spectrum of rights as adults: civil and political, social, cultural and economic. Under the Convention, children’s rights should be implemented without discrimination of any kind, all actions and policies should be guided by the best interests of the child, the participation of children should always be sought and all actions should aim at the promotion of the survival and development of children.

What does ratification mean?

When governments ratify the CRC, which is the act by which they formally and publicly accept to be legally bound by it, they commit themselves to promote, protect and fulfil the rights of children as outlined in the articles of the Convention. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, a body of 10 internationally elected independent experts on children’s rights, monitors progress towards implementing these rights.

What is the history of children’s rights?

All these efforts, which led to the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989 and its entry into force in 1990, were intended to bind people in every country and of every culture and every religion to work to ensure that all the world’s children enjoy the rights they deserve - to survival, health and education; to a caring family environment, to play and culture; to protection from exploitation and abuse of all kinds and to have their voices heard and opinions taken into account on issues affecting their lives.

What is the new vision for children?

The Convention clearly states that all children have rights that are inherent human rights, and that these should not be perceived as optional, as a question of favor or kindness to children, or as an expression of charity. These rights generate obligations and responsibilities. More than acknowledging the vulnerable nature of the child and the social responsibility to provide special assistance and protection, the Convention promotes the value of the child as a citizen, a partner in decision-making and in the broader process of social change. The CRC thus envisions the ‘whole child’ as a full, valuable, participating member of society.

What makes the CRC unique?
 

What are the four general principles of the CRC?

1. Children must not suffer discrimination "irrespective of the child’s or his or her parent’s or legal guardian’s race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property, disability, birth or other status." (Article 2)
2. Children have a right to survival and development in all aspects of their lives, including the physical, emotional, psychosocial, cognitive, social and cultural. (Article 6 and 27)
3. The best interests of the child must be a primary consideration in all decisions or actions that affect the child or children as a group. This holds true whether decisions are made by governmental, administrative or judicial authorities, or by families themselves. (Article 3)
4. Children have the right to peaceful assembly, to be active participants in all matters affecting their lives, to express their opinions freely and to have their views heard and taken seriously. (Article 15)

Making progress

In the 10 years since the ratification of the Convention, there has been remarkable progress. Virtually all governments that have ratified the CRC have passed local legislation – where this did not exist previously – which stresses the rights of children and provides a legal basis to realise those rights. A number of countries have also modified their constitutions to incorporate the principles of the CRC into every aspect of national law.

• Some countries have introduced institutions such as children’s ombudspersons (officials appointed to investigate individual complaints against public authorities), while others have set up committees to monitor progress towards realisation of children’s rights. Norway was the first country to appoint an ombudsperson for children in 1981.

• Nearly every government in the world now has a Ministry, Commission or Council responsible for children to monitor progress in children’s lives and to advance children’s rights in policy making. Today 20 countries have established, or are in the process of establishing, independent human rights bodies for children.
  
   
• In Malaysia, an intersectoral group of non-governmental organisations and government agencies has been established to monitor its compliance to the CRC.
  
   
• In Mongolia, child participation and protection indicators are being developed.
  
   
• In Costa Rica, a social rights ‘audit’ is conducted involving children and the community to monitor and assess how the country is or is not meeting the Convention’s mandate.

• In South Africa, the government has set about reforming its juvenile justice system. Efforts are focused on moving children out of the criminal justice system and into other forms of legal mediation, popularly known as "children’s courts."
  
   
• Several Latin American and African governments experiencing armed conflict have officially demobilized their child soldiers.
  
   
• Children’s rights are also being protected through successful international partnerships to improve the health and survival of millions of children. Through immunization, for instance, the lives of three million children are saved each year; and through efforts to eliminate iodine deficiency 12 million children are being spared mental disability annually. Polio is on the brink of eradication. Millions more children are enrolled in schools now than at any time in history, and significant gains have been made in improving access to sanitation and safe water.

-Chief Editor
info@starofcity.com,
bsinghdhall@starofcity.com
 

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