Ten steps for implementing children's rights
Participants listen during the Ibero American Meeting on the Rights of Indigenous Children and Adolescents in Madrid, 8 July 2005. PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU/AFP/Getty Images
The Convention on the Rights of the Child puts the best interests of children first. Amnesty International calls on governments, opposition groups and all others who exercise control over children to adhere to this principle in all matters concerning the treatment of children. AI calls on governments to take the following concrete measures to protect children at risk of human rights abuses in custody, in the community and in situations of armed conflict.
- Ensure that children in detention or in the care of public or private institutions are protected from all forms of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Take special measures to protect girls from rape and sexual abuse.
- Ensure that all children who come into contact with the justice system are subject to special procedures based upon the fundamental principles for juvenile justice set out in the CRC.
- Enforce the worldwide ban on the imposition of the death penalty for crimes committed when the defendant was under 18 years of age.
- Provide adequate redress, including compensation, to child victims of human rights violations, aimed at their rehabilitation and reintegration into society.
- Ensure that children are detained only as a last resort, and for the shortest possible time. Children should never be detained solely for being relatives of "wanted" political or criminal suspects. The detention or imprisonment of children along with their mothers must never be used in such a way as to inflict torture or ill-treatment on either.
- Investigate impartially and thoroughly all reports of "disappearances", extrajudicial executions or other human rights violations committed against children.
- Prohibit the compulsory or voluntary recruitment of anyone under the age of 18 into government armed forces, and ban people under the age of 18 from participating in armed hostilities.
- Protect the rights of refugee and internally displaced children, including protection against recruitment and sexual exploitation. Facilitate the return or resettlement of displaced people in safety and dignity.
- Take immediate steps to end hazardous and exploitative forms of child labour, including bonded labour, commercial sexual exploitation and any other work that threatens the health and welfare of the child. Ensure that all child workers are protected from abuse or exploitation.
- Develop comprehensive programs of action to promote non-discriminatory treatment of girls and boys and to eradicate harmful traditional practices.
Updated: 14 February 2006