Child and Human Rights

Contents: 1. The rights of children. 2. Female foeticide and human rights. 3. National Commission and policy for protection of child rights. 4. Child labour, sexual exploitation and the global economy. 5. Child prostitution: a denial of human rights. 6. Status of children in India. 7. National human rights Commission (NHRC) and child rights. 8. Civil and political rights. 9. Special protection measures.

From the introduction: Children\'s rights are comprehensively protected by a wide-ranging set of international and regional instruments spanning human rights, humanitarian and refugee law. Children benefit from the rights contained in general treaties. In addition, a number of specialist instruments have been created to accord extra protection to children given their particular vulnerabilities and the importance to society as a whole in ensuring the healthy development and active participation of its young members.

The over arching framework for children\'s for children\'s rights is the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of Child (CRC). This was the first treaty specifically concerned with the rights of children and marked an important shift in thinking towards a rights based approach which held governments legally accountable for failing to meet the needs of children. The Convention created a new vision of children as bearers of rights and responsibilities appropriate to their age rather than viewing them as the property of their parents or the helpless recipients of charity.