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	Children have specific rights and should be protected at all times by UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, agencies   Oct. 2022   With pandemics, complex humanitarian emergencies, and extreme climate-related crises posing significant global challenges, UN rights experts remind all States that children are full human rights holders and are entitled to special protection.   They called on Member States to recognize that all people under the age of 18 are children and have specific rights as guaranteed by the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The experts issued the following joint statement:   All Persons below the Age of 18 Years are Children:   Upholding All the Rights of All Children, Everywhere, at All Times   “We are witnessing an increasing failure to uphold international humanitarian and human rights law obligations around the world, all against the backdrop of significant challenges posed by pandemics, complex humanitarian emergencies, and extreme weather events/climate-related crises.   Children and families continue to be displaced, while conflicts as well as States’ efforts to counter armed groups, including those designated as terrorist groups by the United Nations, are further contributing to the erosion of international protection frameworks, often leading to the violation of children’s rights.   Today, we remind all States that children are full human rights holders, independently from parents or guardians, and are entitled to special protection under international human rights law, in particular under the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history with 196 States parties. The Convention on the Rights of the Child sets out a wide range of human rights applicable to all children and underlines that the best interests of the child should be a primary consideration in all actions concerning them.   We call on Member States to recognize all persons under 18 years as children and provide them with special protection.   We emphasize that Member States have the primary responsibility to protect, respect, and fulfill children’s rights, both in times of peace and in times of war.   Whatever their age, gender, or status; whatever country they live in; or wherever they come from, all children are entitled to all their human rights, including the right to life, survival, and development; the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health, including mental health; the right to education; the right to engage in play and recreational activities; the right to be protected from all forms of violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation; the right to access justice and humanitarian assistance; the right not to be deprived of liberty unlawfully or arbitrarily; and the right to express views freely in all matters affecting them, amongst others.   However, the rights of children, including those living in conflict and post-conflict situations, are all too often violated.   We are particularly concerned about situations in which children above a certain age are treated as adults or as ‘young’ adults. In some instances, this is under the cover of traditional or cultural values or counterterrorism or national security responses, with dramatic implications for the full enjoyment of their rights and protections provided by the CRC.   We continue to call for the universal ratification and implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocols on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict (OPAC), on the Sale of Children Child Prostitution and Child Pornography (OPSC), on a Communications Procedure (OPIC) to ensure children are treated as children, and to end once and for all the recruitment and use of children under the age of 18 years by armed forces and groups.   We further call for the endorsement of other international instruments such as the Paris Principles and Commitments, the Safe Schools Declaration, and the Vancouver Principles, which support the protection of children from armed conflict.   In addition, children who have been recruited or used and who have been released or have escaped must receive long-term, sustainable, gender and age-sensitive, and disability-inclusive reintegration programmes, with access to health care, mental health and psycho-social support, education, and protection, among other support.   Childhood is a special, protected phase of life during which children have specific rights as recognized in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. It must, therefore, remain recognized and treated as separate from adulthood.   Today, we call on all States to uphold their international legal obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child and ensure that all children, without discrimination, are allowed to be children, to grow, learn, and play in a safe, inclusive, and caring environment, and to thrive with dignity. Everywhere. And at all times.”   * The experts: UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children, UNICEF, and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime   http://www.ohchr.org/en/statements/2022/10/children-have-specific-rights-and-should-be-protected-all-times-un-experts http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/joint-statement-unicef-executive-director-catherine-russell-and-chair-committee http://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention-rights-child http://www.ohchr.org/en/treaty-bodies/crc   July 2022   The Violence-Prevention Dividend: A new study by a coalition of child-focused agencies on why preventing violence against children makes economic sense for all countries.   (Report from Childfund Alliance, Plan International, World Vision, UNICEF, Save the Children, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children)   The Convention on the Rights of the Child enshrines the right of all children to live free from violence. Whilst everyone can agree that violence against children is profoundly wrong, unacceptable and must end, few are aware that it also creates huge financial costs for its victims, families and economies.   Beyond its direct impact, violence can have long term economic and social costs. Violence against children undermines the efficiency and effectiveness of all government investments in services for children, including antenatal care, nutrition and parenting programmes, early childhood development, social protection and education. The pervasive effects of violence against children hamper both individual and social development and hold back future national economic growth.   Ending violence against children offers the potential to generate large social and economic dividends. It would remove a critical barrier to children achieving their full developmental potential and could save costs to societies that have been estimated to be up to 5% of national GDP.   Governments which direct resources towards ending violence against children are also upholding children’s rights to survival, development and protection; they are also meeting their obligation to care and protect children to “the maximum extent of their available resources.”   Such investments are also essential in adhering to their pledge to create a world “free from fear and violence” made in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.   This paper gives an overview of the economic case for investing in the prevention of violence against children. It is intended to alert policymakers to the substantial economic and social costs of violence against children and the potential dividend that would accrue from investment in violence prevention. The paper outlines where governments can strengthen and improve engagement in violence prevention in light of post COVID-19 recovery planning and beyond.   The investment case supports a Call to Action for governments and development partners to increase the resources currently allocated for the prevention of violence against children and to use resources even more effectively.   Facts about Violence Against Children:   Key fact 1: Violence against children is a universal and global issue. Data from population-based surveys are improving our understanding of the prevalence and nature of violence against children. An estimated one billion children – half of all the children in the world – are victims of violence every year.   More children are victims of violence than we know of because so much violence goes unreported. The evidence on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on violence against children reveals a grim picture: violence has increased while becoming less visible.   Key fact 2: Violence against children is a continuum. Violence against children takes many forms, including harsh discipline, child labour, torture, trafficking, bullying, harmful practices such as child marriage and female genital mutilation, and deprivation of liberty.   Evidence from surveys shows that one-third of respondents experienced multiple forms of violence. Bullying and cyberbullying, which may torment a child at home, school, online and in the community, shows how violence affects children on a continuum of suffering.   Key fact 3: Violence against children has multiple risk factors. Violence has a strong gender dimension and disproportionately affects marginalised children, such as those with disabilities, those from minorities, those experiencing poverty and those who are homeless.   Key fact 4: All violence against children can be prevented. There is ample evidence that the prevalence of violence against children can be decreased by well-designed, evidence-based programmes, even in resource-poor settings, creating the foundations for its eventual elimination.   Key fact 5: Sexual violence against children is widespread, and its scale and complexity has increased with digital technology. An estimated 120 million girls (or 1 in 10) under the age of 20 have suffered some form of forced sexual contact at some point in their lives. In 2020, more than 153,000 websites were reported as containing images of child sexual abuse, an increase of 16% on the year before.   The COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing humanitarian crises have exacerbated violence in all its awful dimensions: it is a global scourge that we must do all in our power to stop.   http://www.wvi.org/publications/child-protection/violence-prevention-dividend http://www.unicef-irc.org/article/2147-social-protection-for-children-not-adequate-according-to-new-world-social-protection-report.html Visit the related web page
	Be Unapologetically Impatient by Yasmine Sherif Education Cannot Wait (ECW), agencies   Aug. 2022   Patience is a virtue. However, it is definitely not a virtue in the face of human suffering.   As we mark the one-year anniversary of the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, one must ask: how long can adolescent girls wait to return to secondary school? The Afghan people have suffered poverty, wars, climate-induced disasters and forced displacement for four decades; this is now exacerbated by a full-on attack on girls’ right to education.   As we continue to witness grave violations against children in protracted crises in the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, State of Palestine, Yemen, Syria, the Sahel and beyond, attacks on children and their rights seem never-ending. How much longer can they wait until they can enjoy a safe learning environment, develop to their full potential and learn the skills needed for their future?   How long can we wait to achieve the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948? How long until we deliver on our promise for every child’s inherent human right to education and on the Sustainable Development Goals with its fast-approaching 2030 deadline?   Crises and forced displacement are growing at record speed, all while the interconnections to poverty, conflict, violations of international law and climate change are multiplying around the globe. According to ACAPS, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Mali, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan are all experiencing “very high-severity crises.”   One of the most severe is the complex crisis that has persisted in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for several decades. Schools are being attacked, girls and boys are severely abused, dying and losing their homes and loved ones, and an estimated 3.5 million primary-age children are out of school.   The crisis for the Palestinian children in Gaza and the West Bank has gone on for generations. And while it has one of the highest primary school attendance rates in the Middle East and North Africa region, children still lack a safe learning environment, limiting their learning potential. Elsewhere in the region, the crises in Syria and Yemen have displaced millions of children from their homes and disrupted the educational trajectories of an entire generation.   The number of children and youth whose education has been disrupted in crises has sky-rocketed – from an estimated 75 million to 222 million – in just a few years. How long can they wait? Have we waited too long? Did we assume that being apologetically patient is a virtue?   For strategic government donors, the private sector, philanthropic foundations and the world’s high-net-worth individuals, we must all be uncompromisingly impatient and invest now in the #222MillionDreams of these 222 million children and adolescents.   The 222 million crisis-affected girls and boys who urgently need to access a quality education.   May the day come when we no longer need to ask ourselves: “How long can they wait?” We must cease apologizing to them. We must “impatiently” show them that their education cannot wait and that their dreams can come true.   http://www.educationcannotwait.org/222milliondreams http://www.educationcannotwait.org/news-stories/press-releases/education-cannot-wait-222-million-crisis-impacted-children-in-urgent http://www.acaps.org/countries http://www.wfp.org/news/generation-risk-nearly-half-global-food-crisis-hungry-are-children-say-wfp-african-union http://www.wfp.org/school-feeding http://www.unicef.org/learning-crisis http://www.ei-ie.org/en/item/26814:world-leaders-meet-to-transform-education-at-global-summit http://www.un.org/en/transforming-education-summit/financing-education http://www.gi-escr.org/private-actors-social-services/education Visit the related web page
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