RIGHTS-UN: Convention on Children Remains Hollow

By Thalif Deen Reprint | | Print |

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 11 1999 (IPS) - The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, described as the single most widely ratified treaty in history, has delivered far less than it promised, a New York-based human rights group said Thursday.

“For too many children, the promises of the Convention remain hollow, and the abuses they endure every day contradict the commitments made by governments,” said Lois Whitman, executive director of the Children’s Rights Division of Human Rights Watch.

“The international community has failed its children,” she declared.

In a 32-page report titled “Promises Broken,” Human Rights Watch said that countless children around the world routinely were denied their basic human rights despite pledges made by signatories and state parties to the Convention.

The study was released to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the Convention, adopted by the UN General Assembly on Nov 20, 1989.

The only two countries that have not ratified the Convention are the United States and the “failed state” of Somalia which, for all intents and purposes, had no government.

“The US failure to ratify this convention is inexcusable,” said Whitman, “What kind of message does this send? It undermines the US’s credibility as a nation that cares about children.”

The Convention has been ratified by 191 out of 193 countries but, despite this near universal ratification, millions of children stilled received no education, worked long hours under hazardous conditions and languished in inhumane conditions in institutions.

Others endured harassment and physical abuse by police, were subject to trafficking and sexual exploitation or were forced to become soldiers or refugees from armed conflict.

The promises held out by the Convention included: children’s right to life; to be free from discrimination; to be protected in armed conflicts; to be protected from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; and the rights to education, health care, an adequate standard of living and freedom from economic exploitation and other abuse.

The study assessed the rights of children drawing on research conducted in 26 countries over the past five years.

Human Rights Watch declared that, notwithstanding the much- ballyhooed Convention, 300,000 children in more than 30 countries were currently participating in military conflicts worldwide…subject to injury, disability, psychological trauma and death.

The Geneva-based International Labour Organisation (ILO) has estimated that 250 million children, between the ages of five and 14, were working in developing countries – at least 120 million full-time.

Sixty one percent of these were in Asia, 32 percent in Africa and seven percent in Latin America.

Article 32 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child protects children from economic exploitation and work likely to be hazardous to the child’s development, or to interfere with the child’s education. The Convention also calls on states to take legislative and other measures, including sanctions and penalties, to guarantee this protection to children.

The study declared this grim picture was compounded by the use of children as prostitutes in countries throughout the world.

“An unknown but very large number of children are used for commerciall sexual purposes every year, often ending up with their health destroyed, victims of HIV/AIDs and other sexually transmitted diseases,” it said.

Articles 34 and 35 of the Convention specifically forbids the sexual exploitation or trafficking of children.

But, the study added, 130 million children in 1998 had no access to basic education, and millions of others received little or substandard instruction. In many countries, ethnic minorities and girls were denied an adequate education, and in poor or rural areas, prohibitive school fees kept many children out of school.

The study also pointed out that hundreds and thousands, if not millions of children were kept in orphanages and non-penal institutions, after being orphaned or abandoned.

In some cases, such children were deprived of adequate food and basic medical care, an adequate education, and subjected to appalling levels of cruelty and sometimes deadly neglect.

In its study, Human Rights Watch also challenged governments to improve the lives of children by fully implementing the Convention.

It urged steps be taken to strengthen protections for children, including the ratification of the new ILO Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labour, ratification of the Rome statute of the International Criminal Court, and raising the minimum age for recruitment and participation in armed conflict, from 15 to 18.