Rights of children

By Ozias Hmar

These days, children fa-ce many problems in various fields of our modern living. In the subject matter I would like to point it down about what the ‘Rights of Children’ are? Especially a girl child fac-ed with sexual harassment in Manipur. Recently in Mizoram a girl child was sexually abused by her relative. Not only this, they are being forced to work in fields, mills, factories etc due to poverty. So, the child by reason of his physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care before as well as after birth. The need for such special safeguards found its first expression as early as 1924 in the Geneva Declaration of the Rights of the Child. It was drawn up by the then “save the children Fund International Unit.” It was a five-point text which was taken on board by the League of Nations. It was expanded in succeeding years into what was to become the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, 1959.

UN Declaration of 1959

The Declaration of the Rights of the Child adop-ted by United Nations Ge-neral Assembly on 20th November, 1959 proclaims to provide to the child “ the best that mankind has to give”. It re-affirms that the child should enjoy the rights for its own good and for the good of society. It calls upon parents, men and women and upon voluntary organizations, local authorities and national Governments to recognize these rights and strive for their observance by legislative and other measures.

The principle or the rights set forth in the Declaration are as follows:

i) All children, without any exception whatsoever, shall be entitled to the rights set forth in this Declaration, without distinction or discrimination on account of race, colour, sex, language, religi-on, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status whether of himself/herself or of his/her family.

ii) They shall enjoy special protection, opportunities, and facilities by law and by other means, to enable him/her to develop physically, mentally and spiritually and socially in a healthy and normal manner and in condition of freedom and dignity.

iii) The child shall be entitled from his/her birth to a name and a nationality.
iv) The child shall enjoy the benefits of social security and shall be entitled to grow and develop in health. To this end, he/she and his/her mother shall be provided special care and protection including pre-natal ca-re. He/she shall be entitled to enjoy the right to adequate nutrition, housing, recreation and medical services.

v) The child who is phy-sically, mentally or socially handicapped shall be given the special treatment, education and care required by the particular condition.

vi) The child, for the full and harmonious development of his/her personality, needs lo-ve and understanding. He/she wherever possible should grow up in the care and under the responsibility of his/her parents and in any case in an atmosphere of affection and of moral and material security. A child of under years shall not, save in exceptional circumstances, be separated from his/her mother. Society and the public authorities shall have the duty to extend particular care to children without adequate means of support.

vii) The child is entitled to receive free and compulsory education at least in the elementary stages. He/she shall be given an education which will promote his/her general culture and enable him/her on a basis of equal opportunity to developed his or her abilities, his individual judgment and his/her sense of moral and social responsibilities and to become a useful member of society. The child shall have full opportunity for play and recreation which should be directed to the same purpose as education.

viii) The child shall in all circumstances be am-ong the first to receive protection and relief.

ix) The child shall be protected against all forms of neglect, cruelty, and exploitation. He/she shall not be subject to traffic in any form. He/she shall not be admitted to employment before an appropriate maximum age. He/she shall not be caused or permitted to engage in any occupation or employment which would do harm to his/her health or education or interfere with his/her phy-sical, mental or moral development.

x) The child shall be protected from practices which may foster racial, religious and any other form of other discrimination. He/She shall be brought up in a spirit of understanding, tolerance, friendship, peace and universal brotherhood and in full consciousness so that his/her energy and talents could be devoted to the service of his/her fellow men/women.

To be precise, the child has been granted the following rights by the UN Declaration of Right of the Child, 1959, the right of affection, love and understanding, the right to adequate nutrition and medical care, the right to free and compulsory education, the right to full opportunity for play and recreation, the right to a name and a nationality, the right to special care if handicapped, the right to be among the first to receive relief at the time of disaster, the right to learn to be a useful member of society and to developed individual abilities, the right to be brought up in a spirit of peace and universal brotherhood, and the right to enjoy these rights regardless of race, colour, sex, religion, national and social origin.

International Year of the Child

The United National General Assembly declared 1979 as the International year of the Child. It provided an occasion to countries to review the condition of its children and to renew and intensify its programmes for developing the full potential of the children. It aimed at stimulating each Government to expand activities which would overcome adverse conditions affecting many children.

The Year of the Child had encouraged Government, private organizations and individuals to do much more for the children who needed special help. Thus the Year of the Child provided an occasion for practical activities for making the rights of the child a living reality.

UN Convention of 1989

The United Nations Convention on the rights of the child adopted on 20th November, 1989 is the most comprehensive and greatest treaty of the twentieth century on children’s rights.

It sets universally agreed standards for protection of children and provides a valuable framework for the development of programmes and policies that will ensure a realistic and safe future for children in every country. In the Convention, a child is defined as a person below the age of 18 years, unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier.

The Convention includes all the rights set out in the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, 1959. It also include a number of rights which have not been incorporated in the earlier Declaration. Some of these new rights are noted below:

i) The rights to the child who is capable of forming his or her own views, to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child. The views of the child will be given due weight in accordance with age and maturity of the child. He or she will be provided opportunity to be heard in any judicial and administrative proceedings affecting the child.
ii) The right to freedom of expression, including the freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds.
iii) The right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.
iv) The right to freedom of association and of peaceful assembly.
v) The right to seek protection against illicit transfer to and non-return from abroad.
vi) The right to protection against arbitrary or unlawful interference with his or her privacy, family, home and against unlawful attacks on his or her honour and reputation.
vii) The right to protection against all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation.
viii) The right to protection against all forms of sexual abuse and sexual exploitation.

The rights set out in the Convention can be broadly grouped under the headings of survival, protection and development. The survival rights imply that children should be saved from preventable diseases. Protection connotes that every child should be shielded against physical, mental or sexual abuse. Development implies the rights to adequate nutrition, primary health care and basic education.

The Convention is a special one because for the first time in international law, children’s rights are set out in a treaty which will be binding on those nations that ratify them. It is also special in the sense that there shall be an elected committee to examine the progress made by the nations in achieving the obligations undertaken in the Convention.

UN agencies involved in children’s welfare

There are several UN agencies which have been working towards the cause and development of children in the developing countries of the world. The biggest of these organizations directly dealing with the problems of children are the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

WHO

The World Health Organization was established as a specialist agency by the United Nations Economic and Social Council on 7th April, 1948. Its objective is the attainment of the highest possible level of health by all the peoples of the world.
WHO assists the Governments to strengthen their health services, to stimulate and advance work to eradicate diseases, to promote maternal and child health, mental health, medical research and the prevention of accidents, to improve standard of teaching and training in the health professionals and of nutrition, housing, sanitation, working and other aspects of environmental health.

UNICEF

The United Nations Children’s Fund was established by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1946 to give aid to child victims of war and for improving child health in war effected countries. It was an emergency measure and hence was called the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund.

In 1950, the programme was extended to children in underdeveloped countries. In 1953 it became a permanent organization. It concentrates its assistance on development activities aimed at improving the quality of life for children and mothers in developing countries.

The UNICEF has focused on popularizing four primary health care techniques which are low in cost and produce result in a relatively short time. These include: oral dehydration therapy to fight the effects of diarrhoea infection, expanded immunization against six most common childhood diseases, child growth monitoring and promotion of breast-feeding. The UNI-CEF works in close collaboration with the WHO.
The UNICEF is the word’s largest supplier of vaccine and “ cold chain” equipment needed to deliver them, as well as, oral dehydration salts. As written above the world is changing method in difference ways, even the modern peoples do not know much things about Child Right. From today onwords let us put our hands together for the safety of children. They are also human being, created as his own image.

The Sangai Express