Children's Rights

Front Page

Mission

Through Children’s Villages
we give abandoned children
a hopeful future in a safe
and loving family home.

Vision

We wish for all children to
grow up in love and safety with a positive hope for the future in full respect of the Children's Rights.

Focus

Children’s Villages
Cuzco, Peru
Itahari, Nepal
Blantyre, Malawi - NEW

It is our vision that all children grow up in love, respect and safety with a positive hope for the future - in a sustainable world as a worthy home in full respect of the Children's Rights.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child
The Convention is a universally agreed set of standards and obligations which place children in the centre in the quest for a just, respectful and peaceful society. The series of commitments was agreed to on 20 November 1989 by the United Nations General Assembly and since then 191 States have ratified it - all except Somalia and the US.

It spells out the basic human rights for all children, everywhere, all the time: the right to survival, to develop to the fullest, to protection from harmful influences, abuse and exploitation, and to participate fully in family, cultural and social life.

The Convention protects these rights by setting standards in health care, education as well as legal, civil and social services. These standards are benchmarks against which progress can be assessed and States that ratify the Convention are obliged to keep the best interests of the child in mind in their actions and policies.

Every child - regardless of where they are born, the race or ethnic group they belong to, whether they are a boy or girl, rich or poor - must have a full opportunity to become a productive member of society and must have the right to speak up and be heard.

The Convention defines a child as a boy or girl under the age of 18 and considers a child as both an individual as well as a member of a family and a community. A child is a human being with the full range of rights. One of these rights is free access to education within a human school discipline.

The 8 Millennium Development Goals
The Goals was agreed upon in 2000 with goal 2 being to “Ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling”. According to UNICEF founded by UN in 1946 to help children, “meeting this Education Goal will speed progress toward every other Millennium Goal, as educating children helps reduce poverty and promote gender equality.

School offers children a safe environment, with support, supervision and socialization. Here they learn life skills that can help them prevent diseases, like how to avoid HIV/AIDS and malaria. They may receive life-saving vaccines, fresh water and nutrient supplementation at school. Educating a girl also dramatically reduces the chance her child will die before age five.

Conversely, denying children access to quality education increases their vulnerability to abuse, exploitation and disease. Girls, more than boys, are at greater risk of such abuse when they are not in school. For many villages, a school also provides a safe haven for children, a place where they can find companionship, adult supervision, latrines, clean water and possibly meals and health care.

Yet even these basics are beyond reach for hundreds of millions of children. These children are deprived of their right to education because their families cannot afford school fees or other related costs, or because their communities are too poor or remote to have school facilities and supplies, or because they have to work to put food on the table. Children of indigenous populations or ethnic minorities often face discrimination and are excluded from education, as are children with disabilities.

For the Education Goal to be met by 2015, actions need to address both human and material needs – buildings, books and teachers – and the organic requirements of getting all children into school and ensuring they complete a quality education. These include gender equality in society, good health and nutrition, and the strong backing of governments and communities.”

The International Criminal Court

The Court is an independent, permanent court formed in 1998 under the auspices of the UN based on a treaty, joined by 120 countries. It tries persons accused of the most serious crimes of international concern. The International Criminal Court states that "all interference in the children’s education and learning is a criminal act".

Still 77 million children in the primary school age do not attend school. Though education is important development aid in crises situations saving human lives both now and on a long term basis, the need of quality education is often neglected when humanitarian aid is given because of the focus on immediate aid for shelter, food, health, water and sanitarian facilities. Only when a stable situation in the country is reached and a long term strategy is developed the education need is reflected upon.

We believe a stable situation is only reached through development of a sustainable long term strategy for the need of quality education as a crucial development aid in creating a sustainable world as a worthy home for all children in full respect of the Children's Rights.

For more information through the above mentioned organizations

www.un.org

www.unicef.org

www.icc-cpi.int

Fore more information on development and humanitarian aid

Cyberschoolbus

Economic Commission for Africa (ECA)

Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC)

Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)

Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA)

Global Programme on Globalization, Liberalization and Sustainable Human Development

Inter-Agency Committee on Sustainable Development (IACSD)