Children's rights

Children’s rights refers to the special social and personal rights and protections reserved for children. The United Nations (UN) protects global citizens from violations of their human rights through the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Human Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of the Rights of the Child. Even with these action plans in place, millions of children all over the world are subjected to neglectful, abusive, and violent situations causing them great immediate or long-term harm, or even death. Although a long-time member of the UN, the United States is the only country in the world to have not ratified the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, and thus the nation’s children are not afforded its protections. Although multiple federal and state-level laws and regulations protect American children, they still face continued dangers from poverty, food insecurity, lack of access to proper health care and medical treatments, jeopardy within the US legal system, and lack of adequate protections against child labor.

Background

According to the United Nations, human rights “are rights inherent to all human beings, regardless of race, sex, nationality, ethnicity, language, religions, or any other status.” International laws protecting human rights, including those of children, are covered in The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). This milestone document was proclaimed as the common standard for treatment of all peoples in all nations by the UN in 1948, and served as inspiration for the creation of multiple constitutions for new countries and independent states across the world. Together, the UDHR, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and several optional protocols, make up the International Human Bill of Rights.

In 1959, the Declaration of the Rights of the Child (DRC) was adopted by the UN. This document defines the rights of children to “protection, education, health care, shelter, and good nutrition,” and outlines protections in place to ensure children all over the world are afforded these basic rights. The UN’s work on this is guided by the Convention of the Rights of the Child, which took place in 1989. This convention altered the way children are viewed and treated by international law. Instead of being seen as passive objects needing care, they are viewed as human beings with a distinctive set of rights. The DRC and the convention proved that people all over the world were dedicated to protecting children and advancing children’s rights.

Across the 900 million people around the globe living on less than $1.90 per day, more than half are children. These families struggle to provide the basics—shelter, sustenance, and education—to their children. Most children do not get enough nutrition to sustain them to a solid point of health, and thousands starve to death each year. Additionally, millions of children do not attend school, or are forced to quit school early to go to work and help to support their families, continuing the cycle of poverty through new generations.

In war-torn regions of the globe, millions of children are put in danger every day or are recruited to serve as child soldiers by the factions at war, despite international laws barring this from happening. The UN Security Council has released multiple Action Plans that mandate the safety of children in these regions, which are aimed at preventing the use of children by armed groups. However, these atrocities continue, especially in areas that have seen war for many years. In Somalia, for example, thousands of children have been recruited, used for battle, and left killed or maimed. Additionally, those left unaccompanied by the conflict have found themselves victims of some of the most heinous crimes against children, both from warring factions, and in the refugee camps where they sought safety.

Violence against children, including emotional abuse, physical abuse, and/or sexual abuse, is one of the biggest issues around the world, with a child dying from some act of violence or neglect every five minutes. No matter their class, culture, or education level, the world’s children are at risk every day from their families, peers, communities, and governing bodies. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) developed by the UN have been the guiding force on children’s issues for more than fifteen years. In 2015, the UN adopted a new version of the MDGs called Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The pact calls for a commitment to ending global poverty by 2030, and includes special protections and goals for children. According to the UN, unless global poverty and inequity are resolved by 2030, “167 million children will live in extreme poverty,” “69 million children under the age of five will die between 2016 and 2030,” and “60 million children of primary school age will be out of school” permanently. Each year, UNICEF (United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund) publishes a State of the World’s Children Report that outlines and examines key issues affecting the world’s children.

Internationally, the Human Rights Watch organization monitors children’s rights and adherence to global protection protocols, and outlines the major issues facing the world’s children today. These issues involve child labor, child soldiers, access to education, juvenile justice forums, orphaned and abandoned children, and refugee and migrant children.

Overview

The United States is the only country that has not ratified the UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child, and therefore, the protections afforded other children around the world are not afforded to American children. Other federal protections are in place to keep America’s children safe from harm, abuse, neglect, and violence. In spite of this, however, the nation’s children face continued danger from extreme poverty, child abuse and mistreatment, lack of proper health care and nutrition, jeopardy within the legal system, and lack of adequate protection in child-labor situations.

In the United States, one of every seven children will be born into poverty or extreme poverty, and one in five children will live their entire lives in poverty. By US Census Bureau estimates, that means that more than 15.5 million impoverished children live in America. Surprisingly, more children in the United States live in poverty than in nearly every other developed country in the world, the only exceptions being children living in Greece, Israel, Mexico, and Turkey. There are no laws in place in the United States protecting children from suffering the effects of living in extreme poverty, though there are a variety of federal and state programs designed to assist children living in these situations.

In 2016, the United States saw 4.1 million reports of child mistreatment on over 7.4 million children. Of these, 75 percent of the cases involved neglect or severe neglect, 18 percent involved physical abuse or violence against a child, and 8.5 percent involved sexual abuse on a child (or minor under the age of 18). An estimated one thousand American children die each year from neglect, abuse, or violence. Handicapped or mentally-disabled children are most prone to becoming victims. In 78% of neglect and abuse cases, the perpetrators were the children’s parents. Other than standard legal protections against harming another person, there is only one federal law in the United States protecting children from these types of abuse, the Child Abuse Prevention & Treatment Act (CAPTA) of 1974. This law has been amended several times, most recently in 2016, and includes protections for children against neglect, abuse, homelessness, problematic foster care and adoptions, and sex trafficking. Some states have created additional protections, though no other federal law is in place.

More than eight million American children, or one in ten, do not have health insurance or access to adequate health care. Thousands of additional children have inadequate insurance, or are underinsured, and thus are not likely to get the proper care they need when ill or injured. Experts state that under- or uninsured children are up to ten times less likely to get treatment for severe conditions that may lead to worsened health or even death, including asthma, diabetes, mouth diseases, and problems related to extended hunger, including obesity. Other than the mandatory reporting required of health practitioners and others who deal with children regularly, there are no federal laws specifically designed to protect children’s health in the United States. However, there are related laws which cross over into covering this aspect, like child support and family laws, as well as federal programs in place to ensure children have access to health care, like the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

Food insecurity in the United States affects one in five children every day, many of them from minority groups including African Americans and Latinos, whose statistics are around one in three. These children may suffer long-term effects from continued hunger, including lower scores in school, especially in math and reading; more physical and mental health concerns; and a higher number of behavioral and emotional problems. Additionally, children in these situations are more likely to become obese due to overconsumption of processed and sugar-filled foods, as well as lack of activity. Over time, food-insecure students become seven times more likely to drop out of school than their peers. Multiple federal and state programs are in place to ensure children receive adequate nutrition, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and free and reduced school lunch programs. However, no laws protect children from the dangers and long-term negative effects of food insecurity.

America’s legal system has multiple protections in place for minors (children under the age of 18). These include law-enforcement officers needing probable cause to search or arrest a minor; arrested minors having the right to a phone call and state-provided counsel; minors on trial having the right to a jury, to confront witnesses, and have charges proven beyond any reasonable doubt; and the right against self-incrimination. Of note, the American judicial and penal systems have multiple laws and articles that contradict the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which explains why the United States has not ratified this convention document. These include the United States allowing minors to be sentenced to the death penalty, which the CRC deems as an unsuitable punishment for offenses committed by children, and the United States sentencing minors to life sentences. The United States is the only country to legally apply these punishments to children.

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FSLA) of 1938 put restrictions on US companies using workers under the age of 18. The law provided regulations on the types of work children could be expected to perform, and how many maximum hours each day and each week they could work. It also ensured protections for health, well-being, and educational opportunities. Despite these protections being in place, thousands of children from low-income or migrant families are forced into unfair and unsafe working conditions every day. During harvest seasons, migrant children can be forced to work up to 14 hours a day, and are exposed to a variety of harmful pesticides and agrochemicals. They do not see the benefit of protections afforded by this law.

The United States ratified the CRC’s Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, which restricts the use of minors as soldiers. However, the US military has been proven to use overly aggressive recruitment and training tactics on their soldiers, a number of which are only 17 years old. Additionally, the United States provides military and financial support to multiple countries around the world known for utilizing child soldiers in their conflicts, and has failed to apply sanctions to these countries, as required by the Child Soldiers Prevention Act (ratified 2008).

Child refugees coming to the United States are not afforded much protection or given many legal rights. They are often denied adequate access to health care and medical services, are abused by law enforcement and detainment officials, and have no options for the asylum they believed they would find in America. They are often held in jail-like facilities, packed with adults and other children, for long periods of time with no options for release. In 2018, the UN accused the United States of violating human rights (of both adults and children) with the Donald Trump administration’s border policies. Under these policies, immigrant families are separated and sent to facilities hundreds or thousands of miles apart, or the children are transported alone back to their home countries to be left with host families while their parents sit in US detention facilities awaiting immigration trials. The UN noted that these policies are creating human-rights-violation situations for all immigrants, as demonstrated by the deaths of two children while in US border-security custody. As of early 2019, the United States has between 10,000 and 20,000 unaccompanied minor children in detention camps, all of whom may be suffering human-rights violations according to UN policy.

Other laws in place to protect American children include the Special Protections for Children as Research Subjects, which regulates the use of children in experiments or with experimental drugs, and the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which serves to protect American children from online predators and cyberbullies.

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