CRC@30 — time to revisit commitments to children

The year 2019 is a special year for the children of the world. It is the 30^th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

On November 20, 1989, world leaders came together in the General Assembly to adopt the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Since then, the Convention has become the most ratified human rights treaty in history.

The Convention underscores the accountability of governments, civil society, parents and the international community to fulfil their obligations towards the realisation of the rights of children, and to ensure that these rights remain inalienable, integral and indivisible from the universal human rights framework as we know it.

The CRC has transformed the way we view children today. It has set in motion a process of social change, building the foundation for a world where all rights for all children are to be guaranteed and protected. These include the rights to survival, development, protection and participation. Under the Convention, children are no longer the properties of their parents or wards of the state. They are individuals with their own rights.

Thirty years on, child rights have not changed, but childhood has. CRC has helped to transform children’s lives. It has inspired governments to change laws and policies and make investments so that more children get the healthcare and nutrition they need to survive and develop; fewer children are forced to leave school, to do hazardous work, or to get married at an early age and there are better systems to protect children from violence and exploitation. It has also enabled more children to have a voice and participate in their societies.

Since the adaption of the CRC, important advances have been made in health, education, nutrition and access to basic services for children and adolescents. The global under-five mortality rate has fallen by about 60% as millions of children have been saved through timely vaccination against preventable diseases. The proportion of primary school-aged children not in school decreased from 18% to 8%. The guiding principles of the CRC — non-discrimination; the best interests of the child; the right to life, survival and development; and the right to participation — have influenced numerous constitutions, laws, policies and practices. This has had a positive impact on the well-being of the population and the increasing number of children who can exercise their rights. Not to mention significant economic and social progress.

Unfortunately, despite the progress that has been made, millions of children, especially the poorest and most marginalised, are being left behind. Poverty, discrimination and marginalisation continue to leave millions of the most disadvantaged children at risk. Children are physically, physiologically and epidemiologically most at risk of the impacts of the climate crisis. Although more children are immunised than ever before, a slowdown in immunisation coverage rates over the past decade is threatening to reverse hard-won gain in children’s health, and the number of out-of-school children has stagnated and learning outcomes for those in school remain poor.

As one of the first countries to ratify the CRC within a year of its adoption, Pakistan’s commitment and efforts made for realising and delivering child rights are commendable. A lot has been done during the last 30 years to prioritise children’s issues, but a lot more needs to be done. Pakistan has one of the highest infant mortality rates as thousands of children under five years of age die every year from preventable diseases. The nutritional status of children is poor, with approximately one in four children under five affected by stunting and an estimated 22.6 million aged 5-16 are not attending school and some are forced into early marriage and child labour.

Every child has the right to survive and thrive, but with a neonatal mortality rate of 42 per 1,000 live births, newborns in Pakistan continue to die because of conditions, such as low birth weight, hypothermia and sepsis, that can be managed with cost-effective interventions delivered along the continuum of care during pre-pregnancy, antenatal, intrapartum, delivery, postpartum, and postnatal periods for mothers and their newborns.

Pakistan is also confronted with a triple burden of malnutrition affecting adolescents, pregnant and lactating women and young children as revealed by the National Nutrition Survey 2018, and very little has changed since 2001. An estimated 40% or about 12 million children under the age of five are stunted, making Pakistan, one of the countries with the highest numbers of stunted children in the world. There is, however, a renewed commitment by policymakers to reduce malnutrition through evidence-based multisectoral response, focusing on the first 1,000 days of a child’s life.

As for the right to education, 22.6 million children between the ages of 5-16 are out-of-school in Pakistan. Disparities based on gender, socio-economic status and geography are significant. We need to ensure that all children, girls and boys, get quality basic education through formal and non-formal learning programmes, and that learning environments are safe and child-friendly, with special attention to children in the most deprived communities.

Every child has the right to grow up in a safe, protective and nurturing environment, to be free from all forms of violence, exploitation and neglect. Yet, there is evidence to suggest that children in the country face violence, abuse and exploitation. There is a need to strengthen child protection systems and build the capacities of the government and communities to promote the right of the child to protection.

Children’s rights are at a crossroads. We must act on the promise made 30 years ago, accelerate progress already made and develop new solutions to translate rights into realities. And most importantly, we must listen to children and young people themselves, who are calling for change. Hence, while children face new threats to their rights, they also have new opportunities to realise their rights. The CRC@30 is an opportunity to revisit commitments to children and accelerate our efforts so that all children in Pakistan realise their rights as enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 13^th, 2019.

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