On 10 September 2021 the UN Secretary General has presented his report on Our Common Agenda: Responding to Current and Future Challenges. The report, together with the SG call to action for human rights, is further evidence of the need for child rights mainstreaming across the UN system as well as an opportunity to raise awareness on why child rights mainstreaming at all levels, including at the UN, is necessary for the full realization of children’s rights. Child Rights Connect has developed a position paper in response to Our Common Agenda and is calling for endorsement by members and partner organisations.

Mainstreaming child rights must be an integral part of the human rights-based approach, to go hand in hand with gender mainstreaming and intersectionality and treated as everyone’s responsibility. It should take place at all levels, from local to global, and across sectors. Without an effective and systematic application of a child rights approach, some rights end up being overlooked, partially realized or even violated. Child rights mainstreaming is necessary for the holistic implementation of the UNCRC.

The UN has a key role to play when it comes to child rights mainstreaming, and the CRC Committee has highlighted in General Comment No 5 that all UN entities across the three pillars of the UN should mainstream children’s rights throughout their activities. However, this is yet to be fully achieved. While many good policies and practices exist, there are gaps in all the three pillars of the UN. There is little understanding of what child rights mainstreaming means in practice, what UN entities should do and there is a lack of a coherent approach to ensure that all entities integrate children’s rights in the holistic way that the UNCRC requires.

Children remain the only group who have a specific human rights treaty without a dedicated UN strategy to ensure policy coherence within the system. Children amount to over a quarter of the world population, but they constitute half of the world’s poorest, of which an estimated 356 million live in extreme poverty. In 2019, 1.6 billion children were living in a conflict-affected country; and, as at the end of 2020, an estimated 35 million of the 82.4 million forcibly displaced people were children.

These are only some of the figures that can give a sense of why policy coherence within the UN is needed now more than ever, at a time where decades of progress in implementing the UNCRC and its Optional Protocols have been undermined by measures taken under the COVID 19 pandemic and where an unprecedented pushback against child rights is being faced. To counter the backlash and ensure the continued advancement of children’s rights, a UN-wide approach to child rights is crucial to reinforce the UN’s capacity to progress member States’ action at the national level.

Child Rights Connect’s position paper includes a call for the development of a UN-wide strategy on child rights.

We are calling on your organisation to sign the paper as soon as possible and by 20 November. By endorsing the paper, you will help create pressure on the UN and member States by showing that civil society is mobilized and united. We encourage you to use the paper to raise awareness amongst States, UN agencies, civil society, national human rights institutions and children, and to call on the UN to put child rights at the core of its action in a way to further progress the holistic implementation of the UNCRC by States.

Please take a look at the translations of the position paper into French and Spanish. A child-friendly version of the position paper will be available soon.

Final list of signatories of the position paper as of 20 November 2021:

  • Acción por los Niños
  • Action against Child Exploitation
  • Action for Children with Disabilities (ACD) Network
  • Adamfo Ghana
  • Africa Alliance for Health Research and Economic Development (AAHRED)
  • Africa Child Policy Forum (ACPF)
  • All human rights for all in Iran
  • Alliance for Africa’s Orphanages
  • Alliance for Children Mauritius
  • Alliance for the Rights of the Child
  • Amnesty International
  • Anti-Discrimination Centre Memorial
  • Apprentis d’Auteuil
  • ARARTEKO, Defensoría del Pueblo del País Vasco
  • Articolo 12 Società Cooperativa di Servizi
  • Asociación Grupo de Sociología de la Infancia y la Adolescencia (GSIA)
  • Asociación Internacional de Jueces y Magistrados de la juventud y familia
  • Association des Enfants et Jeunes Travailleurs de Côte d’Ivoire (AEJTCI)
  • Association ”Paix ” pour la Lutte contre la Contrainte et l’Injustice
  • Brexpats – Hear Our Voice
  • Centro de Estudios Sociales y Publicaciones (CESIP)
  • Child Rights and Special Needs Education Centre (CRESNET)
  • Child Rights Coalition Asia (CRC Asia)
  • Child Rights Information Centre
  • Child Rights International Network (CRIN)
  • Children’s Environmental Rights Initiative (CERI)
  • Children’s Rights Alliance for England, part of Just for Kids Law
  • Citizens and NGOs Association for the Convention on the Rights of the Child Japan
  • CIVICUS
  • Clínica de Direitos Humanos PPGD/PUCPR
  • Consortium for Street Children
  • Coordination of Associations for children
  • Corporacion La Caleta
  • Corporación Opción
  • Cyprus Confederation of Organizations of the Disabled (CCOD)
  • Defence for Children International
  • Defensa de Niñas y Niños – Internacional, DNI Costa Rica
  • Defensa de Niñas y Niños – Internacional, DNI España
  • Defensores PROCDN
  • ECPAT International
  • Elizabeth Fry Society of Greater Vancouver
  • Equitable Tourism Options (EQUATIONS)
  • European Network of Ombudspersons for Children (ENOC)
  • Eurochild
  • Family-Based Solutions
  • Federația Organizațiilor Neguvernamentale pentru Copil (FONPC)
  • Fondation Apprentis d’Auteuil International
  • Franciscans International
  • Future Focus Foundation
  • Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children
  • Grupo de Iniciativa Nacional por los Derechos del Niño
  • Human Rights Watch
  • Humanium
  • Initiative for Community Concern, Uganda
  • Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion
  • Instituto Interamericano del Niño, la Niña y Adolescentes
  • Instituto Promoviendo Desarrollo Social (IPRODES)
  • InterAction Suisse – Association nationale des personnes intersexes
  • International Play Association
  • International Service for Human Rights (ISHR)
  • International Social Service
  • Intersex Belgium
  • Learning for Wellbeing Foundation
  • Lumos
  • Make Mothers Matter (MMM)
  • Makhzoumi Foundation
  • Movimiento Movilizandonos por una cultura integral de derechos, Chile
  • Muslim Family Counselling Services
  • National Network for Children, Bulgaria
  • National Secular Society
  • Organisation Mondiale pour l’Éducation Préscolaire (OMEP)
  • PEDER
  • Plan International
  • Plataforma de Infancia
  • PRATYeK
  • PRATYeK – NINEISMINE
  • Project Amplify
  • Proyecto Solidario por la Infancia
  • Railway Children
  • Rede da Criança Child Network
  • Red Niña Niño Guatemala
  • Relais Enfants Parents Romands (REPR)
  • Save Street Children Uganda (SASCU)
  • Save the Children
  • Shanduko Yeupenyu Child Care
  • SHE A Movement Foundation
  • SOS Children’s Villages International
  • Street Child Care and Welfare Initiative
  • TB-Net (NGO Network on UN Treaty Bodies): Centre for Civil and Political Rights (CCPR-Centre), Child Rights Connect, Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (GI-ESCR), International Disability Alliance (IDA), International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR), International Women’s Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific (IWRAW-Asia Pacific) and World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)
  • Terre des Hommes, Germany
  • The Association of the Survivors of Makobola Massacres (ARMMK)
  • The Justice Desk
  • Their Future Today
  • The Martin James Foundation
  • Together (Scottish Alliance for Children’s Rights)
  • Transfomers community based organization
  • Väteraufbruch für Kinder e.V.
  • WAO Afrique
  • Women’s World Summit Foundation
  • World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)