Module One

Children’s Needs and Rights

Children’s Needs and Rights

This Module introduces the aims and rationale for the course. It then explores the relationship between Children’s Needs and Children’s Rights.

Rationale of a Rights-Based Approach to Children’s Health

All children have rights by virtue of their humanity. All children also have needs. The Convention on the Rights of the Child establishes international recognition that children have a right to have these needs met.

The Convention provides a comprehensive framework of rights which will facilitate a holistic approach to promoting the well being of children.

Children’s health and development is best promoted by the fulfillment of all their needs. Respect for all the rights embodied in the Convention will help achieve this goal.

The Convention is legally binding and imposes obligations on governments to respect children’s rights.

Aims of the Course

  To raise awareness of the Convention on the Rights of the Child To increase understanding of its direct application to health and

health care policy and practice To promote insight into how policy and practice can be improved to

effect greater respect for the rights defined in the Convention To raise awareness of the relationship between public policy and the

health rights of children To encourage a commitment to the development of an advocacy role in

respect of children’s rights

Modules

Module 1: Children’s Needs and Rights Module 2: Highlights of the UN Convention on the Rights

of the Child Module 3: Respecting Children’s Rights in Pediatric

Practice Module 4: Health Policy and Health Services

Module 5: The Health Professional as Advocate

Learning Objectives for Module 1

1. Understand the definition of universal needs of children

 

2. Understand the relationship between children’s needs and children’s rights

 

3. Explain how children’s requirements for adult support and assistance in meeting children’s needs creates an entitlement or right to have their needs met by adults

 

4. Understand the special role of child health providers in ensuring respect for children’s rights

What is the Convention

The Six United Nations Human Rights Treaties

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966)

International Covenant on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights (1966)

International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial

Discrimination (1966)

Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979)

Convention against Torture, and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment (1984)

Convention on Rights of the Child (1989)

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

The universal rights of children have been codified into an international human rights treaty, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989).

The Convention introduces binding obligations on all governments to protect and promote the rights of children

that are necessary to fulfill their needs.

What does the Convention Do

  Promotes a philosophy of respect for children

Recognizes children as subjects of legal rights

Challenges traditional views of children as passive recipients of care and protection

Insists that children are entitled to have their needs met and thereby imposes obligations on adults

The Convention Establishes an Emerging View of Children

The Convention encourages a culture of respect for childrenwithin communities and families.

Children are listened to and their views are taken seriously. There is increasing recognition given to children’s abilities to make

decisions for themselves as they grow older. Parents and communities must consider children’s best interests

when making decisions that affect them. Recognition is given to the fact that children’s interests will not

always coincide with those of their parents.

Implications of Children’s Rights

The individual relationship between the health professional and the child

Policies with respect to the delivery of health care services

The role of health professionals as advocates for children

Children’s Needs and Rights

Needs and Rights

This Module will examine the relationship between needs and rights, and explore how knowledge of children’s rights can contribute to the promotion of children’s health and development.

Relationships Between Children’s Needs and Rights

All children have needs, the fulfillment of which will facilitate their health and development.

  Needs extend beyond the physical to encompass

social, economic, cultural, intellectual, emotional and psychological needs.

  Children cannot fulfill these needs without adult

support.

These needs can only be fulfilled if adults accept responsibility for meeting them.

 

Acceptance of responsibility for the needs of children by adults gives children an entitlement or right to have their needs met.

 

Recognition that children have rights in respect of all their needs demands an approach in which children become active participants in the decisions and actions which affect them, not merely recipients of adult intervention and protection.

 

Relationships Between Children’s Needs and Rights

Activities

Activity 1.1Defining Children’s Needs

This exercise is designed to develop an understanding of the needs of children to ensure their optimal health and well being.

Activity 1.1

Please identify what a child needs in order to fulfill his or her full potential in one of the following three broad and overlapping categories: 

Physical needs

Social and cultural needs

Intellectual, psychological and emotional needs

Approach this task in general terms. It is not necessary to define the exact

detail of the needs that you are describing.

Activity 1.1

Give consideration to: 

What age do you consider to be included within childhood?

Do children have different needs at different ages?

Are there needs of children that relate both to their present age and to their future role as adults?

Are these needs universal?

Examples of Needs

    Examples of Physical Needs

shelter health care adequate clean water and sanitation protection from environmental pollution adequate food adequate clothing protection from violence, exploitation and abuse

Examples of Social and Cultural Needs

knowledge of and respect for own language, religion and culture

stable social and economic environment family environment, whether the biological or a

substitute family access to appropriate guidance and support access to play and friendships respect for privacy freedom from discrimination and prejudice

Examples of Intellectual, Psychological and Emotional Needs

opportunities for play access to education a stable and loving family environment age appropriate information and stimulation opportunities to be listened to and taken

seriously

Activity 1.2 Characteristics of Children’s Needs

This exercise is designed to develop an understanding of the characteristics of children’s needs.

Activity 1.2Characteristics of Children’s Needs

Respond to these questions, as you consider the needs of children inyour practice, your community, nation and the world. 1. Which needs apply to all aspects of a child’s development?2. What inter-relationships and inter-dependencies exist between needs and rights?3. How do children’s needs (rights) change at different stages of their development?4. Do these needs extend to all children in all societies, irrespective of their

country’s wealth or stage of development?5. Who is responsible for meeting children’s needs?

Commentary

Commentary

What Rights does the Convention containExamples of RightsUnderlying Principles of the ConventionConcern for Parental RightsRelationships between Children’s Needsand Rights

What Rights Does the Convention Contain?

Social RightsEconomic RightsCultural RightsProtective RightsCivil and Political Rights

These rights are indivisible and universal. There is no hierarchy of rights.

Examples of Social & Economic Rights Contained in the Convention

Social rights. For example, the right to life, and optimal survival and development, to the best possible health and access to health care, to education, to play, to family life unless not in the child’s best interests

  Economic rights. For example, the right to an adequate

standard of living for proper development, to benefit from social security, the right to protection from economic exploitation

 

Examples of Protective and Cultural Rights Contained in the Convention

  Protective rights. The right to promotion of the child’s

best interests, to protection from sexual exploitation, from armed conflict, from harmful drugs, from abuse and neglect, to rehabilitative care following neglect, exploitation or abuse

Cultural rights. The right to respect for language, culture and religion, to abolition of any traditional practices likely to be prejudicial to the child’s health

Examples of Civil and Political Rights Contained in the Convention

Civil and Political rights. The right: to be heard and taken seriously to freedom from discrimination in the exercise of rights on any

grounds to freedom of expression to privacy to information to respect for physical and personal integrity, and freedom from all forms of violence, or cruel, inhuman or degrading

treatment

Underlying Principles in the Convention on the Rights of the Child

Article 2. All the rights in the Convention apply to all children without discrimination on any grounds.

  Article 3. In all actions affecting children their best interests must be a

primary consideration.  Article 6. All children have the right to life and optimal survival and

development.   Article 12. All children capable of expressing a view have the right to

express that view freely and to have it taken seriously in accordance with their age and maturity.

Concern for Parental Rights

Article 5 recognizes parents’ rights and duties to provide direction and guidance to children.

Article 9 stresses the right of children not to be separated from their parents unless necessary for their best interests.

Article 18 stresses the obligations of governments to provide support and help to parents in order to help them fulfill their role of promoting and protecting their children’s rights.

Relationships Between Children’s Needs and Rights

All children have needs, the fulfillment of which will facilitate their health and development.

  Needs extend beyond the physical to encompass

social, economic, cultural, intellectual, emotional and psychological needs.

  Children cannot fulfill these needs without adult

support.

These needs can only be fulfilled if adults accept responsibility for meeting them.

 

Acceptance of responsibility for the needs of children by adults gives children an entitlement or right to have their needs met.

 

Recognition that children have rights in respect of all their needs demands an approach in which children become active participants in the decisions and actions which affect them, not merely recipients of adult intervention and protection.

 

Relationships Between Children’s Needs and Rights

Key Points

1. The Convention on Rights of the Child defines the full range of children’s needs and rights, and provides a practical framework for addressing these needs in an integrated and holistic way.

All children have rights that emanate from their humanity. In addition, all children have basic universal needs.

These needs form a basic set of common standards necessary for optimal health and development.

Children are entitled to be treated according to these common standards.

These standards impose obligations on adults to ensure their fulfillment.

A commitment to fulfilling these obligations creates rights for children to have their needs met.

Key Points

Key Points

2. The Convention poses a challenge to traditional approaches that view children as incompetent,

passive objects of adult protective care. Instead, it acknowledges children as both capable and entitled to active participation in decisions that affect their lives.

3. It is legally binding on all countries that have ratified it. Governments are required under international law to take all necessary measures to implement its provisions. It provides a universal set of standards against which to measure and improve the treatment of children.

4. There are no formal sanctions that can be brought against governments for failing to comply with its provisions or the process of reporting to the Committee on the Rights of the Child. It is nevertheless an invaluable mechanism for monitoring how a government is complying.

Key Points

5. It provides an opportunity for all those involved in children’s health and well being to work together toward improving standards.

6. Full implementation of the rights contained in the Convention would herald a fundamental change in the status of children in all societies in the world and ensure their optimal health and development and fulfillment of potential.

Key Points