In Senegal, Save the Children is supporting a local NGO coalition in running a national survey, conducted by children and youth, about the CRC. Here is what some of these interviewers think about the CRC:
"If the CRC didn’t exist, many girls below 18 — and even below 12 — would have already been married. Now, our parents don’t give their daughters out in early marriage anymore. Girls themselves can refuse to get married. Without the CRC, the violence against girls would have increased… I had the chance to learn about the CRC before my friends. Now I must go to my community and let them know about their rights." - Fatou, 17
Child Rights are the DNA of our work. Save the Children envisages a world that respects, protects and fulfills children’s rights.
The foundation for our work is the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (the CRC) which encompasses the fundamental freedoms and the inherent rights of all human beings below the age of 18. Children have the same rights afforded to adults and in addition have rights in the CRC that reflect their particular needs as children.
The CRC is in essence an agreement between countries to obey the same ground-rules deemed necessary for a child to survive and develop to his or her full potential. Insistence that all children have exactly the same rights is particularly important in a world of growing inequality and discrimination.
20th anniversary of the UNCRC
The CRC forms the basis of all Save the Children’s work around the world. Since the inception of the Convention, its four main principles have become the underlying and unifying thread among all our efforts in securing children’s rights.
Find out how we are marking the 20th Anniversary of the CRC.
Global commitment and a common agenda for action
The CRC was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1989, has been ratified by close to all states and is recognized as international law. The CRC does not just state what children’s rights are; It goes much further, obliging all governments that ratify it to take all necessary steps to ensure that children’s rights are realised in their country as well as to co-operate internationally on their fulfilment worldwide.
Collectively, these obligations form an agenda for action requiring governments to critically analyse the situation of children in their countries, to identify where rights are not being realised and why, and to ensure attention and resources are focused where they are most needed. Equally, they place obligations upon the international community as a whole to assist those countries that carry the burden of poverty and have the least resources and capacity.
While there is a vital role for governments and their capacity needs to be strengthened, there is also a critical need for an effective and progressive civil society. This includes NGOs working with and through local civil society organizations. Save the Children aims to hold governments, citizens and the international community to account for their commitment and obligation to children and supports local civil society to do the same.
Read the CRC
The convention is available in several languages on the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights' website:
Arabic
English
French:
Spanish
Child-Friendly versions of the CRC
Save the Children Spain has produced a number of child-friendly versions of the CRC in Spanish which can be viewed on their website.
Convención sobre Los Derechos del Niño, Versiones para niñas, niños y adolescentes
What Rights?
Read "What Rights?" (PDF) provides a child friendly summary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (provided by UK Committee for UNICEF)
These are your rights!
These are your rights!
These are your rights: Inspiration material for use those who want to work with the booklet (ie teachers)
