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Essay on Child Rights for Students in English [500+ Words]

January 3, 2021 by Sandeep

Essay on Child Rights: The sound development of a child in terms of physical, mental, emotional and social growth is the essential right of every child. Children can express their claim to these rights without any hesitation. Right to education is also a fundamental right, and these factors have been placed on world agenda tables. The UN General Assembly has adopted these rights as universal claims, and any form of discrimination/ violence against children can attract penal action against offenders.

Essay on Child Rights 500 Words in English

Below we have provided Child Rights Essay in English, suitable for class 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 & 10.

Child rights are the sub-category of human rights catering, especially to the children in terms of their health, education, recreation, family, etc. It also highlights their development and age-appropriate needs that change a passage of time. Three general principles foster all children’s rights,

Non-discrimination – under this, every child is treated equally and has a right to strengthen their potential at all times. For instance, every child will gain access to education irrespective of its gender, nationality, caste, disability or another status.

Opinion of the child – the child wants to be heard and understood; that’s why the voice of the children is pivotal in their overall development. For example, the parents or the elders of the house should take into consideration their children’s needs before making decisions that will further cause damage.

Right to inclusive education – A child with a disability should receive equal access to training and development without being neglected.

United Nation Convention has listed the below rights for the children who come under the age of 18. These rights embody the freedom of children, favourable family environment, leisure, education, health care and cultural activities.

Right to Survival

• Right to live with respect.
• Right to be born.
• Right to have access to basic food, clothing and shelter.

Right to Protection

• Right to be protected from violence.
• Right to be protected from drugs.
• Right to be protected from exploitation.
• Right to be protected from abandon.

Right to Participation

• Right to freedom of voice.
• Right to freedom of expression.
• Right to freedom to form an association.
• Right to information.

Right to Development

• Right to learn and explore.
• Right to rest and play.
• Right to seek education.
• Right to overall development-emotional, physical and psychological.

Significance of Children’s Rights

Children’s are not a commodity or an item to be owned by the parents or the society, but an individual who possesses equal status as a member of the human race. They have their likes and dislikes, which assists them to harness their energy for future growth. Parents can love, care and nurture children through guidance and advice gradually. They need to be thrust towards independence continuously. The sense of accountability needs to be developed by providing necessary tasks so that they realize their value and voice.

The course of their progress determines the future of the children and the country as a whole. The devastating changes like climate change, globalisation, the disintegration of the family, mass migration, etc. affects children to a massive level crippling their identity and social welfare. In situations like armed conflict and other national emergencies, the conditions worsen. Children are vulnerable and susceptible to health risks. The repercussions of disease, malnutrition and poverty endanger their future potential.

They fall prey to sordid living conditions, poor health-care, lack of safe water and housing and environmental damage. Because of all these reasons, children are deprived of the proper home as they are left on the streets. Not only the government but also the citizens of the nation should take charge of enhancing their requirements and taking an initiative to bring change. It is paramount to show respect and appreciation towards children as it helps them to develop healthy mentally. By doing so, their personality is not disabled, and they feel part of society.

10 Lines on Child Rights

• The declaration of Child’s Right was established in the year 1924.
• The rights were formulated by saving the children founder, Eglantyne Jebb.
• The most important rights are- survival, developmental, protection and participation rights.
• It is an extension of human rights, especially for children below 18 years of age.
• These rights emphasize on the age-appropriate needs.
• The violation of the rights includes violence, poverty, and discrimination.
• The United Nation Convention has further elaborated the rights for better understanding and knowledge.
• Through these rights, the government is encouraging people to contribute through donations, adoption and sponsorship.
• Also, these rights stress on having their opinion and say in every decision taken for their betterment.
• The government, through its efforts, is urging people to be vigilant around what is happening and report if there is any violation regarding the rights of the children.

Essay on Child Rights

We live in a society. When people have built a society, they made rules and laws for that society. Some laws and rules are made by the government, while others are made by the people who live in the country. This includes laws that are necessary for the healthy survival of humans. We have some rights that help us to live peacefully. Similarly, there are also some rights for children which are referred to as child rights. Today, we will discuss Child Rights in detail.

Short and Long Child Rights Essay in English

Here, we are presenting short and long short essays on Child Rights in English for students under word limits of 100 – 150 Words, 200 – 250 words, and 500 – 600 words. This topic is useful for students of classes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 in English. These provided essays on Child Rights will help you to write effective essays, paragraphs, and speeches on this topic.

 Child Rights Essay 10 Lines (100 – 150 Words)

1) Children have some basic human rights as adults which are referred to as child rights.

2) Every child has rights, irrespective of their age, race, gender, or where they were born.

3) Child rights are important for the physical and mental growth of children.

4) Rights to education, rights to survival, right health, etc are some child rights.

5) Child rights are essential to set up a good environment for children.

6) It is also important for the development of the nation.

7) In 1989, the United Nations Convention on Child Rights was passed.

8) Children are human beings who should have their rights.

9) Child rights are important to save children from exploitation.

10) We should protect child’s rights and fight issues like child labor and harassment.

Short Essay on Child Rights (250 – 300 Words)

Introduction

Even though there has been a lot of progress in the last few decades, millions of children still don’t have their basic rights. Terms like child labor, and harassment is getting common these days. Children also have the right to extra protection because they are more likely to be used or abused.

What is meant by Child Rights?

Child rights are the fundamental rights that are provided to every child for their proper growth and development. Children have the right to be with their parents and to have a human identity. They also have the right to physical protection, food, education, health care, and criminal laws that are right for their living. Children also have the right to equal protection of their civil rights and to not be treated differently because of their race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, or color.

Need for Child Rights

When children’s rights are protected, they have a much better chance of growing up in society. During a war, a lot of children are hurt in big ways. Most of the time, children have to work in places that are very dangerous and unhealthy. They end up not being able to read or write, and they don’t have any skills. Because of this, they become criminals. These rights will protect them from the different kinds of abuse they might face in their lives.

Child rights are the human rights of children, with a focus on their rights to safety and opportunity. Like adults, they too have a life. People should follow the rules and care for child rights.

Long Essay on Child Rights (500 Words)

Every child deserves to have a full childhood, where they are cared for by their families and communities. They need an environment safe from violence, that gives them the chance to grow and do well like other kids. Surrounding majorly affects a child’s health and development. India has more than a billion people, and more than millions of them are children. It has more children than any other country. They are an important part of society. Like other humans, they also need some basic rights to live peacefully.

History of Child Rights

After World War I, the League of Nations, which would later become the UN, wrote the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It included the rights to life, food, shelter, education, freedom of speech and religion, justice, and peace. In 1959, the “United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Child” tried for the first time to make sure that children were safe from abuse. It came up with 10 principles. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child was made in 1989, and many countries have signed it. This convention gives children a lot of different rights. This UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is very important for making sure children’s rights are respected.

Importance of Child Rights

Children are the world’s future. They are the ones who will be able to help the country grow and improve. So, it is important to protect the rights of every child. In many places, children have to deal with dirty places to live, bad health care, lack of safe water and housing, and damage to the environment. Because of all these things, children are left on the streets and don’t have a good place to live. They are the most vulnerable resource in the world. They can reach their fullest potential in a safe environment where children’s rights are respected. Therefore, they should have the right to a good education, good health, and good food.

What are Child Rights

The Convention on the Rights of the Child says that child rights are part of international law. It says that all children should be treated in a fair, equal, and dignified way. The UN General Assembly has made these rights universal claims, which means that anyone who discriminates against or hurts a child can be punished.

Some fundamental child rights are listed below:

• Right to Education
• Right to Survival
• Right to Participation
• Right to Development
• Right to Health
• Right to Protected from Violence
• Right to a Family Life
• Right to an Opinion
• Right to be protected from Exploitation

Every child has a right to live on this Earth. Government has to make sure that children can use the rights they have. Moreover, we should also make sure that we do everything we can to protect the most vulnerable people in our communities. We can keep them safe from harm, child labor, and war. We can help them build a better future for themselves and for the upcoming generations.

I hope the above provided essays on Child Rights will be helpful in understanding the importance of child rights and the need to protect them.

FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions on Child Rights

Ans.  Every year on 20 November, Child Rights Day is celebrated in India.

Ans.  The United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child defines a child as any person under the age of 18.

Ans.  World Children’s Day is celebrated on 20 November every year.

Ans. There are many challenges to child rights like poverty, culture, environment, neglectful family, etc.

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Essay on Child Rights

Students are often asked to write an essay on Child Rights in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Child Rights

Understanding child rights.

Child rights are fundamental freedoms that every child should enjoy. They include the right to life, education, health, and protection from harm. These rights are recognized by the United Nations and are meant to ensure that every child grows up in a safe, healthy, and nurturing environment.

Importance of Child Rights

Child rights are important because they ensure that children are treated with respect and dignity. They help safeguard children from exploitation and abuse. They also guarantee that children have access to basic services like education and healthcare.

Role of Society

Everyone in society has a role to play in upholding child rights. Parents, teachers, and government officials should all work together to ensure that children’s rights are respected and protected. This includes providing children with opportunities to learn, grow, and thrive.

Also check:

• Speech on Child Rights

250 Words Essay on Child Rights

Introduction to child rights.

Child rights are the fundamental entitlements that every child should enjoy, regardless of their race, gender, religion, or socioeconomic status. These rights are enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), which serves as a universal standard for safeguarding the well-being of children.

The Four Pillars of Child Rights

The UNCRC outlines four primary aspects of child rights: survival, development, protection, and participation. Survival rights ensure children have access to basic necessities like food, shelter, and healthcare. Development rights encompass education, play, and leisure, facilitating holistic growth. Protection rights guard children against exploitation, abuse, and neglect. Lastly, participation rights empower children to express their views and be active contributors to society.

Current State of Child Rights

Despite global efforts, child rights violations persist. Poverty, conflict, and social inequality often result in inadequate access to education, healthcare, and safe living conditions. Child labour, trafficking, and exploitation are prevalent issues, particularly in developing nations.

Future Implications and Conclusion

Upholding child rights is crucial for sustainable development. A society where children’s rights are respected is likely to foster individuals who are healthy, educated, and capable of contributing positively to societal growth. It is imperative that governments, non-governmental organizations, and individuals collectively work towards creating an environment conducive to the realization of child rights. The fight for child rights is not just about the present, but also about securing a promising future for the next generation.

500 Words Essay on Child Rights

Introduction.

Child rights are fundamental freedoms and the inherent rights of all human beings below the age of 18. These rights apply to every child, irrespective of their race, religion, or abilities. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), adopted in 1989, is a comprehensive human rights treaty that enshrines specific child rights in international law. These rights, broadly categorized into survival rights, developmental rights, protection rights, and participation rights, form the basis of ensuring a healthy and fulfilled childhood.

Child rights are specialized human rights that consider the unique needs and vulnerabilities of children. They are guided by four fundamental principles: non-discrimination, the best interests of the child, the right to life, survival, and development, and respect for the views of the child. These principles aim to provide an environment where children are nurtured, protected, and empowered to become responsible adults.

Child rights are critical for the holistic development of a child. They ensure that children are given the necessary care and protection, and are free from violence, abuse, and neglect. They also guarantee that children have access to basic necessities such as education, health services, and a safe environment. These rights play a pivotal role in safeguarding the future of society as they lay the foundation for responsible citizenship and social development.

Challenges to Child Rights

Despite the universal recognition of child rights, numerous challenges hinder their implementation. Poverty, armed conflict, discrimination, and lack of access to education and healthcare are some of the significant obstacles. Child labor, child trafficking, and child marriage are grave violations of child rights that persist in many parts of the world. These challenges require concerted efforts from governments, civil society, and communities to tackle effectively.

Protecting Child Rights: The Way Forward

Protecting child rights requires a multi-faceted approach. Firstly, governments must enact and enforce laws that protect child rights and ensure that these laws are in line with international standards. Secondly, raising awareness about child rights among children, parents, and communities is crucial. Thirdly, establishing child-friendly systems and structures, such as child-sensitive courts and child-friendly schools, can significantly improve the realization of child rights.

Moreover, investing in quality education and healthcare, providing social protection measures, and combating poverty can significantly enhance the implementation of child rights. Encouraging child participation in decision-making processes that affect them can also empower children and make them aware of their rights.

Child rights are indispensable for the growth, development, and well-being of children. They are not just moral obligations or legal requirements but form the bedrock of a just and inclusive society. While significant strides have been made in recognizing and protecting child rights, much more needs to be done. It is only when every child can fully enjoy their rights that we can truly claim to uphold the principles of human dignity, equity, and justice enshrined in the concept of child rights.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

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This essay is part of a series highlighting global human rights trends in 2022. Read more  here .

Education is fundamental for children’s development and a powerful catalyst for improving their entire lives. International human rights law guarantees everyone a right to education. But it surprises many to learn that the international human rights framework only explicitly guarantees an immediate right to free primary education—even though we know that a child equipped with just a primary education is inadequately prepared to thrive in today’s world.

Children who participate in education from the pre-primary through to the secondary level have better health, better job prospects, and higher earnings as adults. And they are less vulnerable to exploitation and abuse, including child labor and child marriage.

All countries have made a political commitment through the United Nations “ Sustainable Development Goals ” to providing by 2030 both access to pre-primary education for all, and that all children complete free secondary school education. Yet the world appears on track to fail these targets , and children deserve more than yet another round of non-binding pledges.

For these reasons, Human Rights Watch believes that it’s time to take countries that made these commitments at their word, and expand the right to education under international law. It should explicitly recognize that all children should have a right to early childhood education, including at least one year of free pre-primary education, as well as a right to free secondary education.

We are not alone in this belief.

In 2019, the World Organisation for Early Childhood Education and the Latin American Campaign for the Right to Education met with experts from the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child to share their research , concluding that the legally binding human rights framework failed to adequately specify that the right to education should begin in early childhood, before primary school.

In December 2021, UNESCO—the UN education organization— concluded that in light of 21st century trends and challenges, the right to education should be reframed, and that recognizing early childhood education as a legal right at the international level “would allow the international community to hold governments accountable and ensure there is adequate investment.”

In 2022, these sparks began to catch fire.

In June, various international children’s rights and human rights experts called for the expansion of the right to education under international law, to recognize every child’s right to free pre-primary education and free secondary education. In September, the Nobel Prize laureate and education champion Malala Yousafzai and the environmental youth activist Vanessa Nakate were among over a half-a-million people around the world who signed an open letter from the global civic movement Avaaz, calling on world leaders to create a new global treaty that protects children’s right to free education—from pre-primary through secondary school.

Argentina and Spain announced their commitments to support the idea at the UN’s Transforming Education summit in September. In October, the UN’s top independent education expert recommended that the right to early childhood education should be enshrined in a legally-binding human rights instrument. And the year ended on a high note with education ministers and delegations gathered at the November World Conference on Early Childhood Care and Education in Uzbekistan adopting the new “ Tashkent Declaration ,” in which they agreed to enhance legal frameworks to ensure the right to education “includes the right to at least one year of free and compulsory pre-primary quality education for all children.”

So what might happen in 2023? All concerned will turn to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva to see whether member countries will agree to start the process to begin drafting such a treaty. At least half of all countries already guarantee at least one year of free pre-primary education or free secondary education under their own domestic laws and policies. This includes low- and middle- income countries from around the world. That means that there’d be a large constituency of countries potentially willing to sign such a treaty when adopted.

Even when human rights feel under threat around the world, it’s vital for the human rights movement not to be on the defensive. Making the positive case for strengthening and advancing human rights standards has a critical role in shaping and improving the future. Guaranteeing the best conditions for children to access a quality, inclusive, free education—and thereby to develop their personalities, talents, mental and physical abilities, and prepare them for a responsible life in a free society—is the kind of positive human rights agenda that all countries should rally around in 2023.

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Home — Essay Samples — Social Issues — Child Protection — The Effectiveness of the Convention on the Children’s Rights

The Effectiveness of The Convention on The Children's Rights

• Categories: Child Protection

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Words: 3053 |

16 min read

Published: May 17, 2022

Words: 3053 | Pages: 7 | 16 min read

Table of contents

Introduction, the vulnerability of children, the convention on the rights of the child, the crc achievements and key challenges.

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The Importance of Children’s Rights

Introduction, do children need to have rights, why children need rights, cases of child abuse and the need to have rights, conclusion and recommendations.

Children are human beings who are still young and among them there are those who are very young. By virtue of them being human beings, they possess particular moral status. They are not supposed to be subjected to some kind of treatment because they are human. But at the same time, the children are not on the same level as mature human beings and therefore there are those activities they are not allowed to carry out, which the adults are allowed to. For example, in most of the jurisdictions, the children are not allowed to engage in voting, marrying, purchasing alcoholic drinks, getting involved in sexual activities or being employed for payment. According to Callan (2002) , the reason for causing children to turn out to be a special case for concern “is this combination of their humanity and youth”.

Among the questions that have been raised is the question of whether or not the children have rights and if they have, whether the rights they have are the same as those the adults have. More so, another question that has been raised in line with this is that; if the children do not have rights that are the same as those of the adults, what are measures that have been put in place to make sure that the children are given treatment that is morally right? In many countries, the jurisdictions that have been put in place accord legal rights to children. Of great significance, many of the nations are signatories to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child which was set up in the year 1989. This convention accords a broad spectrum of rights to the children. One of the most important righteousness that have been accorded to the children under this convention is the children’s right to have “best interests” in all the activities that affect them. Another one is “the right to life” and also “the right of a child who is capable of expressing his or her own views, to express these views freely in all matters affecting the child” (United Nations 1989).

This UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is of great significance in ensuring that children have rights. There have been several cases where children have been abused. Children have been victims of war in which some have been killed, others have become refugees or internally displaced persons thus being exposed to various forms of abuse, they have served as child soldiers, some have faced detention, others have been abused sexually, girls have been subjected to genital mutilation, and still others have been forced to engage in child employment under which they have been exploited. Following these ills to which the children in many nations all over the world have been exposed, it can be clearly seen that children need rights and these rights need to be legally recognized to ensure that they are protected to the maximum level possible. Even if some people have come up with arguments against children having rights, especially those rights that are legally recognized and argued that the children are not at the same level as adults to have rights and need some other form of protection from the adults; such arguments can be seen to be invalid especially considering the abuse the children are experiencing all over the world and therefore, children need rights.

The questions that have been put forth by some people are; do children need to have rights, and if they need to have rights, which kind of rights are they supposed to have? It is important to be aware that rights can be moral or legal rights. Based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the children possess the rights in law. These are not necessarily accepted as being moral rights. On the other hand, as O’Neill (1988) points out, “if children have moral rights these need not be enshrined in law, although there would evidently be a strong presumption that they should” (Page 457).

Some people have presented claims that children are supposed to have all the rights which older people have. Such kinds of people having this view are referred to as “liberationists”. Among this people that embrace this view is Cohen, Holt and Farson (Cohen 1980, Holt 1975 and Farson 1974). A distinction can be made between real liberationists and rhetoric liberationists. The rhetorical liberationists do not really have a belief that the children are supposed to be given equal rights as the mature people. Instead, they have thoughts that presenting claims as such is the most excellent way of realizing the advancement of their interests. On the other hand, the real liberationists don’t see any difference between adult people and children but they regard them as being on the same level. More so, there are those people who believe that children are supposed to have some rights but they should not have all the rights that the adults are supposed to have.

Still, there is that group of people that believes that children are not supposed to have any rights. They claim that children are not qualified like adults to have rights. They also claim that attribution of rights to children is not appropriate for the reason that this brings in a lack of understanding of what childhood really is or the relationship that is supposed to exist between children and adults (Archard, 1993). More so, they also argue that, even if the children may not be given the rights, they can have assurance of receiving moral protection in other ways.

Generally, children do not have some particular cognitive abilities that enable them to obtain information and process it in a manner that is orderly, to set up beliefs that are firm and to have acknowledgement of the importance of available alternatives and their outcomes. More so, the children do not have particular volitional capabilities that enable them to come up with decisions or choices that are independent. However, children are not distinct among human beings in this regard. There are those adult people who are mentally retarded and they are also considered as being incapable of making independent choices. This implies that these people are just like children. But then, the children are not similar to such people. It is true to say that not all the human beings in the world are mentally retarded or have ever been exposed to this condition. But on the other hand, it is true to say that all adult human beings at some point in life were children and have experienced what being a child is like. Therefore, each and every person in the course of the early years of his or her life was not capable of possessing rights even though in adulthood life, he or she is so capable to possess the rights. Basing on these claims, the child’s lack of capacity would tend not to qualify them to possess liberty rights. According to Griffin (2002) “if all human rights are best interpreted as protecting human agency and its preconditions, then it would follow that those incapable of agency, such as young children, should not be accorded human rights (page 27). However, as Brighouse (2002), points out “whilst children lack agency they certainly have fundamental interests meriting protection and thus at least have welfare rights” (Page 36). More so, it can be of great significance to make recognition that children turn out to be human beings that are able to make decisions and that they may qualify to have rights through recognizing this continual growth (Brennan, 2002).

According to Amnesty International USA (2010), ensuring that human rights are there for children is an asset for the future. The rights of children are the materials for setting up a strong culture for human rights and this forms a base for protecting human rights for the coming generations. It is pointed out that “as human beings, children are entitled to all the rights guaranteed by the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR) and the various covenants that have developed from it” (Amnesty International USA, 2010, Para 2). However, in addition, children are supposed to be given special care and protection. They are supposed to be in a position to have dependence on the adult people to give them care, to protect their rights and to offer them assistance in order to build up and have realization of the potential they have. According to Amnesty International, USA (2010), the governments around the world have presented claims to embrace this ideal. However, these governments have in turn shown signs of failure about making sure that there is respect for children’s rights.

In a similar way as adults, children undergo suffering that stems from the human rights violations but the children may also be easy targets for the reason that they are reliant and defenseless. Among some states, officials get involved in tormenting and mistreatment of the children, the children face detention, either lawfully or arbitrarily and even in some nations, the children may face death sentences. During wars, children have been mercilessly killed and a large number of them have escaped from their homes to turn out to be refugees. Those children that have been driven by poverty to go and become street children or forced by abuse in some cases face detention, attack and even death. Millions and millions of children are victims of child labor and they are highly exploited and others have been forced in to child prostitution among other evils.

The international community has come to realize the vitality of offering protection to children against these evils that they are exposed to. The initial attempt to ensure there is protection of children against abuse was carried out in the year 1959 where there was coming up with 10 principles by the “United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Child” but at that time it was not legal for these principles to be enforced. Later in time, in the year 1989, there was adoption of the “Convention on the Right of the Child” by the United Nations General Assembly and this was enforced in the course of the year that followed (1990). From that time, the UN “Convention on the Rights of the Child” has been approved by all the all the member countries of the United Nations apart from Somalia which has not been able for a long time to have a government that can effectively run the national affairs effectively. The CRC has also not been approved in the United States of America.

The “Convention on the Rights of the Child” facilitates elaboration of the rights in accordance to the child’s special needs as well as his or her viewpoints. The CRC is the sole human treaty for human rights “that covers the full spectrum of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, stressing their indivisible and interdependent relationship” (Amnesty International USA, 2010 Para 9). By it having an all-inclusive nature and almost general approval, the “Convention on the Rights of the Child” emerges to be a landmark for global agreement on the fundamental principles of the “universality and indivisibility of all human rights” (Amnesty International USA, 2010).

Basing on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, any person who is below eighteen years of age is regarded as a child unless stated otherwise by the law about who an adult is. This provision poses significant challenges for putting in to use the CRC and most particularly in nations in which the age of adulthood is connected to puberty which is an age that is mostly not the same among boys and girls. Basing on the Convention on the Rights of a child, all the nations are supposed to set up the lowest possible age for criminal responsibility, which is, “according to the Beijing Rule (1), should ‘not be fixed at low an age level bearing in mind the facts of emotional, mental and intellectual maturity’ “ (Amnesty International USA, 2010, Para 11). Even if a nation may fix the “criminal responsibility age” at an age lower than eighteen years, the rights in the CRC are still relevant, and essentially those rights that govern the treatment of the child at the operations of the authorities.

Among the directing rules is the rule that the “best interests of the child” is supposed to be a basic concern in all dealings that are linked to the child. All the children possess the right to be heard and the right to present what they think about issues that affect them so that these issues may be considered or resolved. Those children who may still be very young depend on other people in expressing their opinions and having their best interests protected but as they become older and older with time, they turn out to be more and more capable of expressing themselves and to take part in coming up with decisions by themselves.

It is the responsibility of any government to make sure that there is enjoying by the children of the rights that they have. Not even a single child is supposed to be subjected to discrimination. It was made clear in the Cult Education Forum (2010) that there should be application of the Convention on the Rights of the Child “regardless of race, color, sex, property, language, religion, political opinion or any other opinion, ethnic or social origin, disability, birth or any other status” (Para 7). There need to be equal offering of opportunity to the male child as well as to the female child. The disadvantaged children due to poverty, disability, being refugees, and coming from minority or indigenous groups are supposed to possess the same rights just as the rest of the children. They are supposed to be given equal rights to education, equal rights to grow, and all of them are supposed to enjoy sufficient living standards.

The children’s rights that are found in the CRC are put in four major classes. These classes include:

• Subsistence rights
• Development rights
• Protection rights
• Participation rights

The subsistence rights concern the rights to obtain food, healthcare and the rights to have shelter. The development rights concern those rights that need to be possessed by the child to realize full potential in life including the right to education, religion and the freedom of thought. Protection rights refer to the right to life and the protection against abuse and exploitation and also against being neglected. Participations rights are rights that allow the child to play an active part in the community life as well as the political life (Cult Education Forum, 2010).

On the other hand, not only does the Convention on the Rights concern itself with the rights of the child, but it as well concerns the responsibility the child is supposed to have in regard to respect for the rights of those people around him or her or those people the child comes across. This convention makes recognition that all the children are supposed to be in a position to grow up in a family environment that is dominated with love and happiness, and this convention also makes stipulation that the duty of the family is to offer assistance to the child in order for him or her to have understanding of the rights he or she has and the responsibility he or she has so that this child can be prepared to live a life in which he or she embraces peace, freedom, equality, togetherness, perseverance, and integrity.

Most of often, during a war many children are greatly affected. Among the children, there are those who have experienced war throughout their lives and have never known peace. There are also those children whose world has changed when the war started up in their area and they have turned out to be refugees or internally displaced persons, parting with their family members. More so, millions of children have been killed during the war and others have been left as orphans after their parents being killed in the course of the war. To add on this, there have been common cases, as the result of war, of children suffering malnutrition, starvation and lack of other essential things that are vital for a better living. Many children have also experienced trauma after being witnesses of brutal murder, their lives marked with violence around them and going through fear and hardships. Still, there has been a large number of children who have been forced to take part in killing other people.

Not in all cases are the children accidental victims of the war. There are cases where there is deliberate murdering of the children by the soldiers as well as by the armed opposition groups. This has been carried out for either of the two main reasons. One of the main reasons is that this is carried out in revenge and the other reason for carrying out this is as a way of provoking anger in one another’s community. The young girls are sexually abused. Taking the case in India, young boys are targeted by the soldiers with a belief that these young boys may be supporting the armed opposition groups or they might be potential members of these groups in time to come (Amnesty International USA, 2010).

The children have been forced to be members of the armed groups, either armed forces or armed opposition groups through intimidating them and threatening to kill their family members. Still, there are cases where children have volunteering to join. This has come about for the reason that these children are ready to fight, or in some cases it is because their families do not have food and other basic needs, or they have joined for the reason that they do not have homes and they lack food and sufficient security. Many of these children are not given enough training to engage in the fight as well as being given effective equipment before they are exposed to the war of adult people.

Resulting from this, many deaths have occurred among children and this has resulted from their lack of experience and training, and also because they have been given the most dangerous assignments during the war and such assignments may include planting the landmines or the intelligence work. According to Kaplan (2005) “in Colombia, child soldiers are sometimes called little bees, because of their size and agility enables them to move quickly and sting their enemies” (Paragraph 12).

Considering the case in Uganda, there have been cases of kidnapping of a large number of children by the LRA and these children have been forced to engage in fighting against the military forces of this country. These children that are abducted by this opposition group become the property of the commanders of the group and the girls are forced to get married to these people and they become their sexual slaves. As Dolan ( 2002) points out “LRA commanders force children to take part in the ritualized killing of others soon after they are seized, apparently to breakdown resistance, destroy taboos about killing, implicate children in criminal acts and generally to terrorize them” (Para 4).

Taking the case of Burundi, a number of children have been arrested and put in prison accused of having worked together with the armed opposition groups. However, among these children, there are those who have come to work together with the armed opposition groups forcefully, carrying weapons and carrying out other tasks. Not even one among these children has been tried (Amnesty International USA, 2010).

The subject of child soldiers has turned out to be of much concern on a higher level on the list of items of the global community. “The Convention on the Rights of the Child in the present day has put the minimum age for a child to be recruited in the armed forces and take part in hostilities at 15 years” (Amnesty International USA, 2010). But on the other hand, the Non-governmental organizations have been presenting arguments to bring to an end the use of child soldiers and they have insisted that for the child to be recruited, he or she needs to have attained a minimum age of eighteen years. This argument by the NGOS has been supported by such organizations as UNICEF, UNHCR, International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and the “Expert of the UN Secretary-General on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Children” ( Amnesty International USA, 2010). The United Nations itself does not permit those people under the age of eighteen years to engage in serving as peacekeepers any more.

In acknowledging the Convention on the Rights of the Child, several governments show commitment to protect the rights of the child. The CRC makes a declaration that each and every child has a right to attain an education and have an improved standard of living. It sets up the child’s right not to be prone to being abused sexually and being exploited in any way and using illegal drugs. The Convention on the Rights of Child brings commitment to the nations to bring the young people from being exploited economically or experience interference with their education and being exposed to poor health.

However, ensuring delivering this commitment is something that is greatly challenging. Among the governments, there are those that have taken a move to put in place legislation to protect children from being exposed to child labor and have put in place educational programs to ensure all the children achieve an education. But this move can not justify the manner the officials of the state assist in perpetuating a broad array of abuses that are exercised against children in the family as well as in the community either by way of dynamic involvement and participation or implicit toleration and compliance.

The range of child abuses in the community as well as in the family includes violence in the family and being treated in an ill manner in institutions among others. Children being prone to such abuses as these ones is dependent on other features of the identity they have like gender, the ethnic group they come from and the economic status that is associated with them. This serves to remind in a strong way about lack of divisibility of the human rights. Denying a particular set of rights brings about abuse of the other sets of the rights. The children refused to have an education for the reason that they are girls or for the reason of their poor economic status and exposed to forced labor face conviction of a series of marginalization, poor living standards and lack of power that brings in more violation of their rights.

More so, children in most parts of the world are exposed to hard work. They work in such places as mines, factories and brothels among other places. The children are mostly subject to work in such environments that are very dangerous and unhealthy. Following this, this is an indication that the children are not always given their rights that are promise to them by the Convention on the Right of the Child like recreation and health among other rights. They end up leading their lives as illiterate people and lack skills and this result in to these children turning out to be criminals. A large number of children are sold out by their parents in to slavery or they are also forced in to employment.

Another issue that relates to the rights of the children is the issue of female genital mutilation. This problem has been very common is such places as Africa where the young girls are forced to undergo genital mutilation as a way of initiating them in to adulthood. They are not allowed to get married if they fail to undergo this ritual. However, keen consideration of this issue clearly shows that this is a form of violence against children as well as women and a way of depriving them their basic rights. Efforts are being carried out to deal with this issue by governments. A case can be taken from Cote d’Ivore where there has been presentation of a bill that is aimed at prohibiting female genital mutilation. More so, such efforts have been made by such countries as Egypt and Ethiopia among others (Center for Reproductive Rights, 2008).However, much still need to be done. This should be carried out bearing in mind that the children’s rights need to be protected.

There are many more abuses that are committed against the children. The children have been exposed to unfair procedures in the judicial systems. Some have faced unfair detention and some have even been sentenced to death. More so, those children. Children in refugee camps and the IDPs camp have been subjected to exploitation ranging from sexual abuse and being deprived the right to have access to basic needs. In most cases, those children in the in IDP camps are not able to continue with their education. But on the other hand, those who have been able to across borders to enter in to other countries as refugees stand a better chance to be protected by these governments especially if they are those that are signatories to the CRC. But unlucky enough, this is not often realized (Amnesty International USA, 2010).

Children need rights. These rights that need to be given to children are aimed at protecting them against the abuses to which they may be exposed. Children have been victims of war, they have served as child soldiers, some have faced detention, others have been abused sexually, girls have been subjected to genital mutilation, and still others have been forced to engage in child employment under which they have been exploited among other abuses. All these evils that have been committed against children need to be done away with. To do away with these child abuses, appropriate laws need to be put in place to ensure that the children have rights and these rights are protected in the most efficient manner possible.

The CRC places “the best interest of the child” at the core in all the activities regarding the child. All the governments, families and opposition groups among all other parties are supposed to abide by this principle in whatever the matter that concerns the child treatment. However, the government stands at a better position in implementing all the moves that are aimed at protecting the child. One of the moves that are supposed to be taken by governments is the move of ensuring passing of legislation that gives assurance of the realization of the children rights that are set out in the Convention on the rights for the child and avail sufficient resources to ensure implementation of these rights.

Another initiative that needs to be taken by the governments is to make sure that those children who are in detention or under the care of either private or public institutions are offered protection against torture or any other ill treatment. More so, the governments of nations all over the world are supposed to make sure that those people who are below 18 years of age that come across the justice system are exposed to the judicial dealings that are special basing on the basic principles for juvenile justice that have been established by the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Another move that is supposed to be undertaken by the governments in all nations is to ensure enforcement of global prohibition of subjecting children to death penalty for the crimes they commit and particularly when they have not attained the age of eighteen years. The governments should also make sure that the children face detention in only those cases where this is seen as the only remaining options and they should be detained for the minimum time period possible. They are not supposed to be detained unfairly like in such cases where their parents were suspects or those people close to them.

Another move that need to be undertaken by governments is to ensure banning of recruitment of children in the armed forces and sternly forbid any taking part of children in armed hostilities. More so, the governments should put in place measures to ensure that there is protection of those children who are refugee or internally displaced. This move should be aimed at protecting children against such ills as sexual exploitation and recruitment to enter in to armed forces. Measures should be in place to help in ensuring that these children are resettled in a most dignified manner and in a safe manner.

Still, as a move to ensure that children enjoy their rights, the governments should take immediate measures to bring to an end dangerous and exploitative kinds of labor for the children and these kinds of practices include exposing children to commercial sex, bonded labor and any other form of work that puts in danger the well-being of the children. Lastly, the governments are supposed to set up all-inclusive programs that ensure there is promotion of equal treatment of children regardless of whether they are boys or girls and to do away with those cultural practices that are harmful to the children.

Archard, D., 1993. Children: rights and childhood , Oxon: Routledge. Amnesty International USA, 2010, Humankind owes the child the best it has to give . Web.

Brennan, S., 2002, Children’s Choices or Children’s interests: Which do their rights protect? Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Brighouse, H., 2002, What rights (if any) do children have? Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Callan, E., 2002, Autonomy, Child-Rearing, and Good Lives , in The Moral and Political Status of Children: New Essays, D. Archard and C. Macleod (eds.), Oxford: Oxford University Press: 118-141.

Center for Reproductive Rights, 2008, Female genital mutilations: Legal prohibitions worldwide .

Cohen, H., 1980, Equal rights for children, Totowa, NJ: Littlefield, Adams, and Co.

Cult Education Forum, 2010, The Convention on the Rights of Child (the CRC) . Web.

Dolan, C., 2002, Which children count? The politics of children’s rights in northern Uganda .

Farson, R., 1974, Birthrights , London: Collier Macmillan.

Griffin, J., 2002, Do children have rights? In The moral and political status of children: New Essays, D. Archard and C. Macleod (eds), Oxford: Oxford University Press: 19 – 30.

Holt, J. C., 1975, Escape from childhood: The needs and rights of children , Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Kaplan, E., Child soldiers around the world . Web.

O’Neill, O. 1988, Children’s Rights and Children’s lives , Ethics , 98: 445 – 463.

United Nations (1989), The Convention on the Rights of the Child , reprinted in Children, Rights and the Law, P. Alston, S. Parker and J. Seymour (eds.), Oxford: Oxford University Press: 245 – 264.

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In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section Children’s Rights

Introduction, general overviews.

• Anthologies
• Reference Works
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• Women’s Rights and Children’s Rights
• Children’s Rights and Citizenship
• Psychology and Children’s Rights
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• The CRC after Twenty-Five Years
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Children’s Rights by Heather Montgomery LAST REVIEWED: 11 January 2022 LAST MODIFIED: 11 January 2018 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199791231-0001

Children’s rights are an integral part of human rights; children have rights because they are human. This has been acknowledged and codified in national and international legislation, most notably in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC; 1989). Children are also accorded additional rights because it is recognized that they are more vulnerable than adults and have less power and access to resources. In law, children’s rights apply to persons between the ages of newborn and eighteen, following Article 1 of the CRC. Although this article has come under criticism for imposing an arbitrary time frame on childhood and for ignoring other phases in the life cycle, such as adolescence, discussions of children’s rights are framed by these chronological boundaries. The study of children’s rights is a comparatively new topic of interest, but it has generated a great deal of controversy across several fields, including social policy, law, philosophy, anthropology, and sociology. It also has significant impact in fields such as health care, education, and welfare provision. Certain rights have been enshrined in law, yet there is still much debate over the moral rights of children—whether these rights do, or should, exist and who should safeguard them.

The topic of children’s rights has been approached from a number of different perspectives—most notably, legal and philosophical. The majority of the key texts in the field came out in the 1990s, when legislation, such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), was coming into force. The debates and philosophical background to the issue are most fully discussed in Archard 2004 and updated in Archard 2015 . The essays collected in Freeman 2004 analyze the tensions between autonomy and dependence and examine why children should have particular rights and how they should best be implemented. These issues are picked up and summarized in a single article, Campbell 1992 . John 2003 argues for a change of emphasis such that children’s rights be seen in terms of power relationships and structural inequalities rather than protection. Liebel, et al. 2012 and Denov, et al. 2011 look at the impacts of international children’s rights legislation on children’s lives and at the difficulties of implementation and supporting the philosophies behind the CRC in practice, particularly in the developing world. Hanson and Nieuwenhuys 2012 acknowledges these problems and proposes a new conceptual framework, examining the difficulties and challenges of implementing children’s rights cross-culturally.

Archard, David. Children: Rights and Childhood . 2d ed. London and New York: Routledge, 2004.

The key academic text for understanding the philosophical and moral basis of children’s rights. Clearly written, and suitable for undergraduates and above, the text relates children’s rights to ideas about childhood, examining why children need particular rights and relationships among child, adult, and state. Also looks at issues of age-related competencies.

Archard, David. Children: Rights and Childhood . 3d ed. London and New York: Routledge, 2015.

While retaining much of the overview of the second edition, this edition has a new chapter on the impacts of the CRC and a great emphasis on children’s rights in practice.

Campbell, Tom D. “The Rights of the Minor: As Person, as Child, as Juvenile, as Future Adult.” International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family 6.1 (1992): 1–23.

DOI: 10.1093/lawfam/6.1.1

A concise but comprehensive look at the philosophical basis of children’s rights, asking what differentiates children and children’s rights from adults and their rights. The article discusses positive and moral rights and whether there is a contradiction between them. Also raises important questions of dependence and autonomy. Available online through purchase.

Denov, Myriam, Richard Maclure, and Kathryn Campbell, eds. Children’s Rights and International Development: Lessons and Challenges from the Field . New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.

DOI: 10.1057/9780230119253

An edited volume that looks at the difficulties of implementing children’s rights in the developing world. It uses case studies from South Africa, Asia, and Africa to illustrate the problems of ensuring children’s welfare holistically. Useful for practitioners and undergraduates.

Freeman, Michael D. A., ed. Children’s Rights . 2 vols. Aldershot, UK, and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2004.

A collection of previously published scholarly articles that cover the key theorists from the early 1970s to 2003 in a variety of different disciplines, thereby showing the evolution in thinking on the subject. The text looks at arguments both for and against children’s rights and covers Europe, the United States, and the rest of the world.

Freeman, Michael, ed. The Future of Children’s Rights . Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2015.

Containing updated essays by many of the same scholars as in Freeman 2004 , the essays in this edited book look at the progress made and the ways forward. Contains works by some of the most important scholars in the field.

Hanson, Karl, and Olga Nieuwenhuys, eds. Reconceptualizing Children’s Rights in International Development: Living Rights, Social Justice, Translations . Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2012.

DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781139381796

A collection of essays edited by two key academics in childhood studies, with an excellent introduction that proposes a new conceptual framework for implementing children’s rights cross-culturally. Provides an overview of emerging issues and new ideas in the field.

John, Mary. Children’s Rights and Power: Charging Up for a New Century . Children in Charge. London and New York: Jessica Kingsley, 2003.

Concentrates on the issue of power in children’s relationships with adults and raises questions about how greatly children have been, or can be, empowered through rights. Using international case studies and examples, this book frames discussions of rights in terms of power and agency rather than autonomy or dependency.

Liebel, Manfred, Karl Hanson, Iven Saadi, and Wouter Vandenhole. Children’s Rights from Below: Cross-Cultural Perspectives . Studies in Childhood and Youth. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.

DOI: 10.1057/9780230361843

Emphasizes the importance of cross-cultural understandings of children’s rights and of examining the differing contexts in which children live. Each chapter is written by an expert in the field, and this book is a vital starting point for understanding children’s rights in different parts of the world.

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Children’s Views on Children’s Rights: A Systematic Literature Review

Children’s rights are set out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. This systematic literature review aimed to investigate children’s views of children’s rights, at a broad level. Nine papers were included, from a range of countries and contexts. They all accessed the views of children and young people (aged up to 18 years). A content analysis was carried out using a recursive process of hybrid aggregative-configurative synthesis, and themes within children’s views and factors that may affect these were identified. These were ‘awareness of rights’, ‘value placed on (importance of) rights’, ‘impact of having/not having rights fulfilled’, ‘realisation and respect of rights’, ‘equality of rights’, ‘identifying and categorising of rights’, and ‘factors that may affect children’s views’. These were developed into a progression of rights realisation and implications for practice and further research were considered.

• 1 Introduction

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child ( uncrc ) sets out rights of every child, consisting of 54 Articles which include civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights for all children (Save the Children, n.d.-b ; unicef , 2005 ; United Nations, 1989 ). Further to the specific Articles of the uncrc , there are four overarching core principles: of non-discrimination, devotion to the best interests of the child, the rights to life, survival and development, and respect for the views of the child (often referenced as participation or “children’s voice”) ( United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, 2003 ; Woods and Bond, 2014 ). Notably, however, the conceptualisation and integration of these “general principles” at their foundation within the uncrc has been shown to be weak ( Hanson and Lundy, 2017 ). Whilst this review does not take a specific focus on the participation principle, often specifically related to Articles 12–17, it does relate to the rationale of this review which has a focus upon children’s views of their rights. Since the uncrc has been established, significant amounts of scholarly, research and practitioner attention has focused upon this ( Anderson and Graham, 2016 ; Quennerstedt and Moody, 2020 ; Sargeant and Gillett-Swan, 2015 ; Wyse, 2001 ).

Since the adoption of the uncrc , the principles have frequently been divided into three groups (often known as the 3 Ps), of provision, protection and participation ( Hammarberg, 1990 ; Thomas, 2011 ). Quennerstedt (2010: 633) argues that these in fact have a hampering effect and suggests ‘constructing what children’s rights are about from a general human rights language of civil, political and social rights will form a better base for research’.

The “3Ps”, the four guiding principles, and the 54 Articles have created much research and critical debate both from children’s rights scholars and from those working within the framework of the uncrc ( Hanson and Lundy, 2017 ). Byrne and Lundy (2019) , focusing on creation of rights-based policy, described the comprehensiveness of the uncrc as one of its many advantages, but also noted that even from the four principles, there tends to be a focus on two of these (best interests and participation), arguably distorting overall understanding. Prior to the adoption of the uncrc , Melton (1980) carried out research to find out children’s perspectives on children’s rights, noting that ‘until the present study, no one had even asked children what they think about their rights’ ( Melton, 1980 : 186), and without the framework of the uncrc focus, this was researched more generally, and found that age, stage of cognitive development and ses status affected children’s concepts of their rights and also their attitudes towards them.

Further to this, and perhaps as further evidence to the poor integration of the principles of the uncrc to its provisions ( Hanson and Lundy, 2017 ), it is documented that children were not directly involved to any significant extent in the drafting of the uncrc , which seems somewhat paradoxical to the principle of participation ( Lundy et al. , 2015 ) and Lundy et al. (2015) speculate upon the question of what might have been the consequences had children been involved in the drafting process. It has been been established that, when listened to, children are good reporters ( unicef , 2012 ) and that, following Melton and Limber (1992) , adults will only comprehensively identify what is important to children by being aware of their views ( Taylor et al. , 2001 ).

How do children conceive of the notion of rights? What do they think their rights should be? Are they aware of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child? Do they feel that they have a say in making decisions (Article 12)? Do they want participatory rights? Does it ultimately matter what they think?

At this time, she recognised this as a growing area, as did Taylor et al. (2001) , who nevertheless identified a scarcity of studies exploring views of children and young people ( cyp ) on their rights, and how these may differ from adults. This research took place in New Zealand with a focus on awareness and understanding of rights. The authors summarised what had been found about children’s views, and factors that may affect these, including age, socioeconomic status, cultural background, ethnicity; they also indicated that previous studies suggested significant percentages of children were not familiar with the uncrc . Similarly, Alderson (2000) found more than three quarters of pupils surveyed had not heard about the uncrc , and most of the others had heard only a small amount. This is despite Article 42 which states that children, young people and adults should know about the Convention and steps should be taken to achieve this ( United Nations, 1989 ). Taylor et al. (2001) recognised the potential role of schools as places for both pupils and staff to develop understanding of rights.

The complexity of the uncrc is identified as a barrier (for adults) to implementing a child-rights approach ( Williams, 2017 ) and is clearly not a simple document for children to access, even with an understanding that children can cope and engage with complex information (see Sargeant and Gillett-Swan, 2015 ). There do now exist child-friendly copies of the uncrc (Save the Children, n.d.-a ; The Scottish Government, 2008 ; unicef , n.d.-a ) and these appear to offer ways to make the uncrc more accessible for children, from a young age. Further development of this is a current focus for Child Rights Connect linked to the 30th Anniversary ( The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, n.d. ). There are also focused ways to implement, support and develop children’s education about their rights, such as through Unicef UK’s rights-respecting schools award, and in a variety of other publications used in and beyond the UK (for example, see Brantefors and Quennerstedt’s research synthesis, 2016 ).

The present review aims to identify and synthesise findings from a range of primary research studies to present a view upon children’s views of children’s rights, and as such includes research from different countries, ages, groups (such as those in residential care) and level of exposure to children’s rights. The importance of understanding constructions of children’s rights through children’s views and experiences at a broad, and indeed global, level and considering their different contexts, is identified by Stalford and Lundy (2020) . It is fundamental within the uncrc itself, within the guiding principles, the 3Ps and the specific articles.

• 2 Methodology

From a background in professional practice, the researchers adopted a critical realist approach in conceptualising and structuring this review ( Fletcher, 2017 ). This has the advantage of communicating a particular understanding of “rigour” which is readily understandable to professional practice communities (e.g. children’s services workers) and policy makers/influencers ( Gough and Thomas, 2017 ). (The limitations of this approach are considered at a later point in this paper.)

From the research question of “What are children’s views on children’s rights?”, included research needed to access the views of children (up to 18 years) about children’s rights and this needed to be at a general or “meta” level, for all or some of the focus of the paper. The authors read carefully around this aim, with recognition of the nuanced nature of identifying relevant literature. There is much research which implicitly recognises the need to access children’s views and acknowledges the importance of children’s rights, without these being the focus of the research itself. Databases searched included: assia (via ProQuest), eric (via ProQuest) and PsycInfo (via Ovid Online). These three databases were selected in order to gather research from a range of discipline areas including education, social sciences and psychology, with a focus on accessing research on children’s views. Whilst the importance of interdisciplinarity is recognised (see Stalford and Lundy, 2020 ), it was beyond the scope of the authors to extend searches further for this review. The three databases were searched using noft ( assia , eric ) and within Abstract and within Title (PsycInfo) on 2–4 January 2019 and generated a total of 1,536 returns, including duplications, using the following search terms:

• – ‘child* rights’ or uncrc or ‘United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child’
• – child* or young people or student* or pupil* or adolescent*
• – concept* or perspective* or view* or attitude* or perceive or awareness or perception* or opinion* or thought* or value*

Each paper was scanned by title, and where necessary by abstract, and papers that did not meet the mandatory criteria of accessing children’s views about children’s rights were excluded. This left a shortlist of 116 studies, from assia (6), eric (72), PsycInfo Abstract (30) and PsycInfo Title (8). Using the same search terms, a hand search of The International Journal of Children’s Rights from the last ten years was carried out as were Google searches, and experts 1 within relevant fields were consulted, together providing another five papers at this stage.

The authors recognise there is a “grey area” around research relevance, and searched for papers with a focus upon children’s view of their rights in general, rather than any specific area of rights (e.g. participation, protection, uncrc ). Search terms did not include “voice” and “participation”, as earlier scoping showed that this understandably added a large body of research with a focus on participation as a specific aspect within the uncrc . This review aimed to access a broader view.

In order to create a final list that most reliably accessed these, several papers were discussed in detail between the authors, using the abstracts and in six cases, the full papers. A conservative approach was taken which required agreement of both authors in order for papers to be included. To meet inclusion criteria, papers were required to have a focus on rights generally and not only on specific rights, or uncrc Articles, or with a specific focus such as on “nurturance” or “self-determination”. Research was not excluded if it did not use the uncrc specifically as a framework. Papers were manually filtered to include all those published within the last ten years (2009–2019) and grey literature was not included. Whilst this exclusion decision and cut off period was not linked to any specific event or legislation, it has the benefit of accessing views from children in a contemporary context, whilst also providing a dataset of manageable proportions.

The review did not extend to search for research reported in languages other than English. Nonetheless, if the search terms had produced abstracts (and not full papers) written in English, the authors would have sought assistance to translate these.

This process led to 15 papers being identified as suitable for inclusion. These were each read in full and a further six papers were excluded as they did not meet the inclusion criteria; for example, including pupil participants who were over the age of 18 years, or utilising a structured and directive approach focused on outcomes of children’s rights training. This was due to some research focusing on knowledge of structured content pre and post teaching on children’s rights, without gathering children’s more broadly formed views about their rights, either pre- or post- rights teaching, which was the primary focus on this review.

The final inclusion criteria required papers to:

• – access the views of children (up to 18 years) about children’s rights;
• – have a general or “meta” rights focus, and not a narrow focus on specific rights or rights frameworks;
• – be peer-reviewed research published in the last ten years;
• – not use a structured and directive approach focused on outcomes of rights training/education.

Full review then progressed with the evaluation of the remaining nine papers. It is relevant to note that two of these, Kosher and Ben-Arieh (2017) and af Ursin and Haanpää (2018) , utilise the same dataset but with differing scope and analyses.

Gough’s (2007) Weight of Evidence (WofE) framework was used. Quantitative and/or qualitative review frameworks as appropriate to the specific piece of research were used critically to review the nine papers for methodological quality (WofE A). The qualitative investigation and evaluation papers utilised the frameworks used by Bond et al. (2013) in their review of the effectiveness of solution focused brief therapy (cf. also Law and Woods, 2018 ). Each paper was coded with final scores assigned up to 14 points, with criteria including execution of data collection, analysis close to data, evidence of explicit reflexivity and evidence of attention to ethical issues.

The quantitative investigations utilised a framework previously used by Flitcroft and Woods (2018) , and Woodley-Hume and Woods (2019) , and based on research appraisal guidelines ( Genaidy et al. , 2007 ; Wallace and Wray, 2011 ). These were coded with final scores assigned up to 16 points, with criteria including clear research question or hypothesis, multi-level or intergroup analyses, limitations of the research and implications of findings. Following Bond et al. (2013) , mixed methods research was coded using both frameworks. As frameworks had different totals, final scores were converted to percentages to allow for comparison, and the higher percentage was used. Following Law and Woods (2018) , these percentages were then used to categorise each paper as high quality (67–100 per cent), medium quality (34–66 per cent), or low quality (33 per cent or less).

Each paper was also rated for methodological appropriateness (WofE B). In this case, papers were assessed as high if they used qualitative methods, medium for mixed methods and low for quantitative methods. Whilst the use of qualitative methods enables gathering of data close to participant views, quantitative research also adds relevant information about these (cf. Law and Woods, 2018 ).

Each paper was also evaluated for relevance of focus (WofE C) and categorised as:

• – high (central and open focus on children’s views on children’s rights in general);
• – medium (partial and open focus on children’s views on children’s rights in general or central focus on children’s views on children’s rights with (de)limiting context/framework);
• – low (tangential focus on children’s views on children’s rights in general).

Approximately one third (n = 3) of these papers were reviewed by both authors for the purpose of moderating evaluation, and inter-rater agreement percentages following joint moderation were calculated at an average of 97 per cent final inter-rater agreement; the remaining six papers were read in their entirety and reviewed by the first author.

Each paper was read several times by the first author and key data from each paper was mapped and summarised (see Table 1 ). A content analysis of the findings of each paper was then carried out (cf. Brantefors and Quennerstedt, 2016 ), which supported a recursive process of hybrid aggregative-configurative synthesis ( Gough et al. , 2013 ), which referenced both broad conceptualisations of children’s rights, as well as to the principles of the uncrc and its Articles. This process is summarised in Figure 1 above:

• 3.1 Awareness and Understanding of Rights
• 3.2 Value and Importance Placed on Rights
• 3.3 Impact of Having/Not having Rights Fulfilled
• 3.4 Realisation and Respect of Rights
• 3.5 Equality of Rights
• 3.6 Identifying and Categorising Rights
• 3.7 Factors that May Affect Children’s Views
• 4.1 Summary of Findings
• 4.2 Implications for Theory and Understanding
• 4.3 Implications for Practice
• 4.4 Implications for Future Research
• 4.5 Limitations

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Citation: The International Journal of Children's Rights 29, 4 (2021) ; 10.1163/15718182-29040003

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The Dogs Helping the Covenant Children Find Their Way Back

To heal after a mass shooting, the Covenant School families have turned to therapy, faith, one another — and a lot of dogs.

Monroe Joyce, 10, runs with one of two dachshunds taken in by her family. She is one of several children who now have a dog after surviving the Covenant School shooting. Credit...

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By Emily Cochrane

Photographs by Erin Schaff

Emily Cochrane and Erin Schaff spoke with more than a dozen Covenant School parents, students, staff and their dogs.

• Published March 24, 2024 Updated March 28, 2024

Two of April Manning’s children, Mac and Lilah, had just survived the mass shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville. They needed stability and time to grieve.

Listen to this article with reporter commentary

Open this article in the New York Times Audio app on iOS.

So she did everything she could to keep the family dog, Owen, their sweet but ailing 15-year-old golden retriever, with them for as long as possible. She pushed back his final trip to the vet, keeping him comfortable as he slowly moved around the house.

Getting another dog was the furthest thing from her mind. But a few weeks after the shooting, her children sat her down for an important presentation.

Prepared with a script and a PowerPoint — “Why We Should Get (Another) Dog” — they rattled through research showing the mental health benefits of having one. It could limit their chances of developing PTSD and help them feel safe. Playing together would get them outside and boost their happiness.

Ms. Manning and her husband considered. Maybe a second dog was possible.

First came Chip, a Cavalier King Charles spaniel. Then, after Owen succumbed to old age, came Birdie, a miniature poodle and Bernese Mountain dog mix. And in taking them in, the Mannings were far from alone.

In the year since Tennessee’s worst school shooting, in which three third-graders and three staff members were killed by a former student, more than 40 dogs have been taken in by families at Covenant, a small Christian school of about 120 families.

“I really only expected them to help in a cuddly kind of way, like just to snuggle the kids when they’re upset ,” Ms. Manning said. “But I wasn’t really expecting all the other benefits from them.”

To spend time with the Covenant families is to understand how they have relied on one another, traditional psychological treatments and mental health counseling, and their Christian faith to hold them together.

But it is also to see how often what they needed — a distraction, a protector, a friend who could listen, something untouched by darkness — came from a dog.

An Immediate Response

Dogs greeted the surviving children at Sandy Hook Elementary School as they returned to a refurbished middle school in 2013. A dozen golden retrievers were on hand in Orlando to provide comfort after the deadly attack at a L.G.B.T.Q. nightclub in 2016. The therapy dogs who tended to the surviving students in Parkland, Fla., made the school yearbook .

“Over this period of sort of, 35,000 years, dogs have become incredibly adept at socializing with humans, so they’re sensitive to our emotional state,” said Dr. Nancy Gee, who oversees the Center for Human-Animal Interaction at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Even brief, minute-long interactions with dogs and other animals can reduce cortisol, the body’s stress hormone, research by Dr. Gee and others has shown, providing a possible lifeline for veterans struggling with PTSD and others recovering from trauma.

And on the day of the Covenant shooting, dogs were immediately there to help. Covey, the headmaster’s dog, was at a nearby firehouse, where dozens of staff members and students were evacuated. Squid, a retriever mix, was at the children’s hospital at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, helping to comfort the staff if needed.

When the students who survived were put on a school bus to be reunited with their anguished parents, Sgt. Bo, a police dog, was sitting at their side.

Officer Faye Okert, the dog’s handler with the Metro Nashville Police, handed out a baseball card of dog facts to distract and comfort the children.

“The focus was on him,” said Officer Okert. “You had smiles after what they had been through.”

After families reunited, counselors offered clear advice: To help your child, get a dog. Or borrow a neighbor’s.

That led several parents to connect with Comfort Connections, a nonprofit comfort dog organization. Jeanene Hupy, the group’s founder, had seen firsthand how therapy dogs had helped the Sandy Hook students and started her own organization once she moved to Nashville.

The group, which oversees a menagerie of golden retrievers, a gentle pit bull and a massive English mastiff, began its work by visiting individual homes in the days after the shooting. Then, when students returned to class weeks later, the dogs were once again there.

They were something to look forward to, in the moments when walking through the school doors felt overwhelming. And when there were painful reminders — a water bottle clattering to the floor, an unsettling history lesson on war or the absence of a friend — a child could slip away and cuddle a dog.

As Ms. Hupy put it, something special happens “when you bring in something that loves you more than it loves itself, which is these guys.”

A Reassuring Presence

First it was a joke, then a reality: Everyone was getting a dog.

Fueled by community donations and her own money, Ms. Hupy began connecting several parents and puppies. Even for families who could easily afford a new dog, Ms. Hupy and her trainers dramatically eased the logistical hurdles by finding and training puppies that seemed perfect fits to each family.

The Anderson girls shrieked and cried with joy when they learned they were getting a dog, and have now taught Leo how to flaunt sunglasses and do tricks. The Hobbs children constantly scoop up Lady Diana Spencer, often fashionably dressed in a string of pearls or sweaters.

The dogs are also there in the harder moments, too, like when an ambulance or police car drives by blaring its siren or when the memorial ribbons in their neighborhood remind them of what was lost.

“Sometimes it’s just nice to have a giant soft pillow that doesn’t need to talk to you and just cuddle it,” said Evangeline Anderson, now 11.

And if the dogs chew on a shoe or make a mess on a rug, Ms. Manning said, it is a lesson in how to deal with conflicting emotions.

“We still love them and we’re so glad we have them — both things can be true,” she said. “Just like we can be really nervous about going back to school and still also be excited to do it.”

And maybe, the parents realized, it was not just for the children.

Rachel and Ben Gatlin were driving back from vacation on the day of the shooting. That has meant grappling with the heaviness of survival and knowing that Mr. Gatlin, a history teacher who carried a pistol on his ankle for personal protection, could have run toward the shooter that day.

And while their new dog, Buddy, has adapted to the bossiness of their young children and has developed a penchant for sock consumption, he has also kept the adults’ thoughts focused in the moment. Tending to his needs has served as a reminder of their own.

“When you see it working, you’re in total comfort,” Ms. Gatlin said.

Even the school’s chaplain, Matthew Sullivan, found that the stories of new puppies being shared each day in chapel were “wearing me down in a good way.”

“I kind of wanted to enter into the experience of all these families firsthand,” he said.

Now Hank, a slightly anxious, floppy-eared Scooby-Doo doppelgänger, has been adopted into his home, which had been a little empty without his grown children.

The Alternatives

Not everyone got a dog.

For the McLeans, the solution was two rabbits.

“It’s an incredible distraction to their reality,” Abby McLean said of her children, cupping her hands to mimic cradling a rabbit on her shoulder. “I find myself occasionally doing it as well.”

Another family added Ginny, a tortoise with a possible seven-decade life span, to the mix of animals already in their house.

“For having lost people early in life — there was something that equated to me in that, that there was a longevity to it, to a tortoise,” said Phil Shay, who picked out the tortoise with his 12-year-old daughter, Ever.

Still, the dogs far outnumber the other pets. And every day they can make a little difference.

The first night that George, Jude and Amos Bolton had tried to sleep alone without their parents after the shooting, the slightest grumble from the ice machine or the dryer had been too much. Their mother, Rachel, who had maintained that she liked dogs, just not in her house, soon agreed to take in Hudson, a miniature Goldendoodle puppy with doe-like eyes and wild curls.

“We didn’t realize the dogs could create comfort for people,” Jude, now 10, said, his hands ruffling Hudson’s ears. And when Hudson came home, he added, “he’s just been comforting us ever since.”

It is now easier to sleep through the night, safe with the knowledge that Hudson is there.

“All my friends joke, they’re like, ‘I can’t believe you’re a dog person now,’” Ms. Bolton said. But this dog, she added, “has healed this family.”

Read by Emily Cochrane

Audio produced by Patricia Sulbarán .

Emily Cochrane is a national reporter for The Times covering the American South, based in Nashville. More about Emily Cochrane

Erin Schaff is a photojournalist for The Times, covering stories across the country. More about Erin Schaff

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World Health Day 2024 - 'My health, my right’

April 7, 2024

Around the world, the right to health of millions is increasingly coming under threat.

Diseases and disasters loom large as causes of death and disability.

Conflicts are devastating lives, causing death, pain, hunger and psychological distress.

The burning of fossil fuels is simultaneously driving the climate crisis and taking away our right to breathe clean air, with indoor and outdoor air pollution claiming a life every 5 seconds.

The WHO Council on the Economics of Health for All has found that at least 140 countries recognize health as a human right in their constitution. Yet countries are not passing and putting into practice laws to ensure their populations are entitled to access health services. This underpins the fact that at least 4.5 billion people — more than half of the world’s population — were not fully covered by essential health services in 2021.

To address these types of challenges, the theme for World Health Day 2024 is  'My health, my right’.

This year’s theme was chosen to champion the right of everyone, everywhere to have access to quality health services, education, and information, as well as safe drinking water, clean air, good nutrition, quality housing, decent working and environmental conditions, and freedom from discrimination.

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Roblox Supports Child Safety Legislation in California

by Nicky Jackson Colaco, VP Global Public Policy

People come to Roblox to imagine, create, and share experiences with each other in immersive, user-generated 3D worlds. As a global platform, we believe in building a safe, civil, and diverse community that inspires and fosters creativity and positive relationships around the world. Protecting the safety and privacy of children who come to Roblox to have fun and learn is our top priority. Because of this, we support legislation that we believe will help create a safer internet for children, including the recent California Senate Bill 933 (SB 933), which prohibits individuals from possessing and distributing explicit and/or abusive images of children that have been generated by artificial intelligence (AI). 

As we’ve shared , we believe in the power of AI and generative AI as tools with the power to unlock creativity and productivity and to keep people safe. However, these powerful new technologies require great responsibility and care in how they are used as improper use can lead to harm. According to the Stanford Internet Observatory’s 2023 report , there are thousands of explicit and abusive images of children hidden within popular AI image generators. These images make it easier to create explicit and abusive content. Such images are prohibited on our platform and we use an array of internal tools, as well as external tools like PhotoDNA to prevent that content from being uploaded to the platform or shared.

Such images should be prohibited more widely, which is why Roblox is pleased to stand alongside California law enforcement organizations and child safety advocates to support SB 933. We applaud Senator Aisha Wahab and the members of the Senate Public Safety Committee for their leadership on this legislation and the recognition that laws need to keep pace with the evolving technology landscape.

Since Roblox was founded almost two decades ago, we’ve been committed to putting the safety of young people first, while providing them with an enjoyable online experience. We find this type of content abhorrent, and are proud to collaborate with lawmakers to protect children both on and off of Roblox. SB 933 addresses the pressing issue by expressly prohibiting AI-generated explicit, abusive images of children, clarifying the law to provide more effective safeguards. The solutions set out in SB 933 are straightforward and impactful, and aim to set sensible guardrails for AI-generated images and create a more secure digital environment for children. We hope that others will join us in supporting this important, common-sense legislation.

Children’s Rights and the Means of Their Protection Essay

Children’s rights are at massive risk of violation because children lack independence from their parents and parental guardians. Therefore, children cannot fully represent their interests and often do not even acknowledge their rights. Thus, society’s responsibility is to address the violations of the children’s rights and ensure their protection. Especially during the crisis, such as coronavirus pandemic, children have suffered from various negative impacts such as the economic slump, high level of unemployment, and high mortality rate across the globe.

Even though children have less severe symptoms in case of contacting coronavirus than other age groups, they still experience significant adverse impacts of the pandemic. Raman et al. (2020) have developed a strategy of protecting children’s rights during the COVID-19 outbreaks to minimize the short- and long-term devastating effects on children’s lives. They call for visibility of children and young people during the pandemic, universal access to quality healthcare for children of all ages, proactive assessment of their families and communities, and recognition of orphaned children. Therefore, it is essential to provide the needed care to the young population during this challenging time because they cannot advocate for their rights themselves.

Universally, both intended and non-intended harm towards children is punished more severely than towards adults. For example, many countries consider a sexual assault of children, especially by people who have reached the legal age of majority, as a more severe crime than a sexual assault of adults. Moreover, the offender is punished not only from the legal perspective but also is subjected to heavy ostracization from society, whereas, for example, adult victims in certain communities are judged more than the perpetrator of the assault.

Human service workers need to pay extra attention to the young population, and they have to perform patience and empathy while communicating with a child. Children are less skillful than adults in expressing their needs and discomfort; therefore, social workers are responsible for representing children’s rights correctly. For example, the human service worker’s responsibility is to identify a child’s unique conditions, such as health conditions, trauma, and other irregular needs that children cannot declare themselves.

In order to raise awareness for children’s rights, it is crucial to conduct and implement policies aimed to provide the needed support for children. Such policies can be applied to specific conditions such as the COVID-19 crisis or humanitarian disasters, or there also policies that represent children’s interest in general. Governments should devote their resources to developing and updating these policies, depending on their results and received feedback. They also need to provide legal and human assistance to enforce them so that children can be protected in various spheres of life, such as at home, school, or in the courtroom.

In conclusion, children require a proper representation of their interests by adults and governmental institutions, especially during times of crisis. They are the most vulnerable social group because not only do they not have autonomy, they are also easily subjected to negative influence and rarely possess comprehensive knowledge about their rights. Moreover, there are also children from poor social-economic backgrounds who are even less protected. Therefore, specific measures need to be applied to ensure the safety of the young population, with the focus on children with special needs or who suffer from painful conditions.

Raman, S., Harries, M., Nathawad, R., Kyeremateng, R., Seth, R., Lonne, B. (2020). Where do we go from here? A child rights-based response to COVID-19. BMJ Paediatrics Open, 4 (1), e000714. Web.

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IvyPanda. (2022, October 22). Children’s Rights and the Means of Their Protection. https://ivypanda.com/essays/childrens-rights-and-the-means-of-their-protection/

"Children’s Rights and the Means of Their Protection." IvyPanda , 22 Oct. 2022, ivypanda.com/essays/childrens-rights-and-the-means-of-their-protection/.

IvyPanda . (2022) 'Children’s Rights and the Means of Their Protection'. 22 October.

IvyPanda . 2022. "Children’s Rights and the Means of Their Protection." October 22, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/childrens-rights-and-the-means-of-their-protection/.

1. IvyPanda . "Children’s Rights and the Means of Their Protection." October 22, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/childrens-rights-and-the-means-of-their-protection/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Children’s Rights and the Means of Their Protection." October 22, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/childrens-rights-and-the-means-of-their-protection/.

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Six grave violations against children in times of war

Individual Consultants

Statement by principals of the inter-agency standing committee - civilians in gaza in extreme peril while the world watches on, stories of loss and grief: at least 17,000 children are estimated to be unaccompanied or separated from their parents in the gaza strip, statement by principals of the inter-agency standing committee: we cannot abandon the people of gaza.

Humanitarian Action for Children 2024 Overview

“children live in a world that is increasingly hostile to their rights”, statement by principals of the inter-agency standing committee, humanitarian chiefs will not take part in unilateral proposals to create “safe zones” in gaza.

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Iran executes 853 people in eight-year high amid relentless repression and renewed ‘war on drugs’  

Robust international action is urgently needed to halt a horrifying surge in executions that saw Iran’s prisons transformed into sites of mass killings in 2023, said Amnesty International. In a new research briefing published today the organization highlights that at least 481 executions – more than half of the total 853 executions recorded in 2023 – were carried out for drug-related offences.

“Don’t Let Them Kill Us”: Iran’s Relentless Execution Crisis since 2022 Uprising reveals how the Iranian authorities have intensified their use of the death penalty to instil fear among the population and tighten their grip on power in the aftermath of the “Woman Life Freedom” uprising of September-December 2022. The briefing also raises the alarm over the disproportionate impact of the authorities’ lethal anti-narcotics policies on poor and marginalized communities. 

The death penalty is abhorrent in all circumstances but deploying it on a mass scale for drug-related offences after grossly unfair trials before Revolutionary Courts is a grotesque abuse of power. Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International

The number of executions in 2023 is the highest recorded since 2015 and marks a 48% increase from 2022 and a 172% increase from 2021. Iran’s killing spree is continuing into 2024, with at least 95 recorded executions by 20 March. Execution numbers recorded by Amnesty International are minimum figures and the organization believes the real number is higher.

“The death penalty is abhorrent in all circumstances but deploying it on a mass scale for drug-related offences after grossly unfair trials before Revolutionary Courts is a grotesque abuse of power. The Islamic Republic’s deadly anti-narcotics policies are contributing to a cycle of ‎poverty and systemic injustice, and further entrenching ‎discrimination against marginalized communities, in particular Iran’s oppressed Baluchi minority,” said Diana Eltahawy, Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.

Last year also saw a wave of executions targeting protesters, social media users and other actual or perceived dissidents for acts protected under international human rights law incurring charges such as “insulting the prophet” and “apostasy” as well as vague charges of “enmity against God” ( moharebeh ) and/or “corruption on earth” ( efsad-e fel arz).

“Protesters, dissidents and members of oppressed ethnic minorities are among those executed as the authorities have weaponized the death penalty in an orchestrated bid to sow fear among the public and suppress dissent. Without a robust global response, the Iranian authorities will feel emboldened to execute thousands more people in the coming years with total impunity,” said Diana Eltahawy.

“Our shocking findings on the Iranian authorities’ ongoing assault on the right to life underscore the urgent need for the international community to press the Iranian authorities for an immediate moratorium on all executions. As the UN Human Rights Council votes this week on whether to renew the mandates of the Fact Finding Mission on Iran and the Special Rapporteur on Iran, it is vital to signal to the Iranian authorities that their abysmal human rights record will remain under international scrutiny and to ensure that an international independent investigative and accountability mechanism remains in place to collect and analyze evidence of crimes under international law.”

Revolutionary Courts issued 520 (61%) of the death sentences carried out in 2023. These courts have jurisdiction over a wide range of acts, including drug-related offences, which the authorities consider as “national security” crimes. The courts lack independence, operate under the influence of security and intelligence bodies, and routinely use torture-tainted forced “confessions” in grossly unfair summary trials to issue convictions.  

Staggering increase in drug-related executions

The spike in executions in 2023 is driven largely by a distressing lethal shift in Iran’s anti-narcotics policy after Ebrahim Raisi’s rise to presidency and the appointment of Gholamhossein Eje’i as the Head of the Judiciary, both in 2021.

Amnesty International has analysed official statements from top executive and judicial authorities publicly criticizing 2017 reforms to the Anti-Narcotics Law, which led to a dramatic decline in drug-related executions between 2018 and 2020 and calling for increased use of the death penalty to combat drug-trafficking.  

These official positions have translated into a horrifying upward trajectory since 2021, with 481 drug-related executions in 2023, constituting 56% of the total number of executions. This marks an ‎89% increase from 2022 when 255 people were executed for drug-related offences and a 264% increase from 2021 when 132 people were executed for drug-related offences.

Iran’s Baluchi minority accounted for 29% (138) of drug-related executions in 2023 while constituting only about 5% of Iran’s population, exposing the discriminatory effect of the authorities’ anti-narcotics strategy on the most marginalized and impoverished communities.

Individuals executed for drug-related offences were often cruelly put to death in secret without prior notice to their families and lawyers.

Without urgent action from the international community, drug-related executions will continue to rise, amid ongoing efforts by the judiciary, legislative and executive branches to enact a new lethal anti-narcotics law which, if adopted, would expand the range of drug charges incurring the death penalty. 

Executions as a tool of political oppression  

Throughout 2023, in the aftermath of the “Woman Life Freedom” uprising of September-December 2022, the Iranian authorities also intensified their use of the death penalty as a weapon to quash dissent.

Our shocking findings on the Iranian authorities’ ongoing assault on the right to life underscore the urgent need for the international community to press the Iranian authorities for an immediate moratorium on all executions. Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International

In 2023, the authorities executed six men in connection with the 2022 uprising and one man in connection with the November 2019 nationwide protests. At least a further seven people have been sentenced to death and are at imminent risk of execution in connection to the 2022 uprising and the November 2019 protests.

The rise in executions has led to prisoners on death row going on hunger strike and publicly pleading for interventions to stop their executions.

In May 2023, several days prior to their executions after grossly unfair trials, protesters Majid Kazemi , Saleh Mirhashemi  and Saeed Yaghoubi  smuggled a note out of prison pleading for help, stating: “Please don’t let them kill us.”

On 28 January 2024, another group of death row prisoners wrote an open letter announcing their hunger strike and asking for support to save their lives. “ Perhaps with your help, these executions can be stopped. In whatever way you can, please be our voice…”

Executions of those arrested as children

Last year also marked a shocking escalation in the use of the death penalty against child offenders, with the executions of one 17-year-old boy and four youths convicted of crimes that took place when they were under 18 years old.

Hamidreza Azari  was arrested when he was just 16 years old and executed less than seven months later after a grossly unfair trial that was expedited by prosecution authorities. The Iranian authorities shamelessly misrepresented his age as 18 in domestic media to evade accountability for violating international law which prohibits the imposition of death sentences on people under 18 at the time of the crime.

In recent months, authorities have misleadingly promoted a new directive from the Head of the Judiciary as a step towards “a further reduction” in death sentences against child offenders. However, Amnesty International’s analysis reveals that the directive fails to address long-standing inherent flaws in juvenile laws, and reaffirms the discretion granted to judges to sentence child offenders to death following flawed “maturity assessments”.

Amnesty International has repeatedly urged the Iranian authorities to amend Article 91 of the Islamic Penal Code to abolish the death penalty for crimes committed by children in all circumstances.

The Iranian authorities refuse to provide public statistics of death sentences and executions. To record the number of executions carried out in 2023, Amnesty International worked closely with Abdorrahman Boroumand Centre, drawing from open sources, including reports by state media, independent media and human rights organizations. The organization also reviewed the execution logs of Iran Human Rights and Kurdistan Human Rights Network.

The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception, regardless of the nature or circumstances of the crime; guilt, innocence or other characteristics of the individual; or the method used by the state to carry out the execution.