Child Rights
CRC Article 24: Children have the right to good quality health care, to clean water, nutritious food, and a clean environment, so that they will stay healthy.
What's the environment like where you live? Growing up, how has your environment affected you? Tell us what you think! Fill out the form on this page or .
UNICEF Video Contest on Child Rights
Make a video showing what child rights mean to you, whether in the world at large, your country or your community. 
- The Convention on the Rights of the Child. UN Cyberschoolbus presents the full text in an easy, readable way.
- UNICEF Photo Essays: Part I and Part II. Learn more about the CRC through these photo essays.
July 2, 2009—The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) was developed 20 years ago, in 1989. World leaders got together and decided that children needed a special convention just for them because they are often overlooked in human rights debates. The CRC applies to all those under the age of 18, and has become the world's most widely ratified human rights treaty.
In order to develop to their full potential, children everywhere need to have some basic rights guaranteed. The CRC identifies these rights, which range from the right to life itself (governments must ensure that children survive and develop healthily), to the right to being cared for properly, having a nationality, having a say in decisions that affect them, and primary education, to name a few. While for a lot of young people these rights are a given, they are way out of reach for too many others.
In addition to these basic rights, the CRC addresses other ongoing areas where children's rights are being violated around the world. Here are a few examples:
Child Labor
CRC Article 32: The Government should protect children from work that is dangerous, or might harm their health or their education.
The ILO estimates that there are 218 million child laborers worldwide. Girls are especially vulnerable—they are often burdened with economic activity in addition to their household chores. They also face some of the most unacceptable forms of child labor, including bonded labor and prostitution.
Learn more about child labor and how you can help.
Child Soldiers
CRC Article 38: Governments should not allow children under 16 to join the army.
Around 300,000 young people under the age of 18 are involved in more than 30 armed conflicts worldwide. According to UNICEF, "Child soldiers are used as combatants, messengers, porters, cooks and to provide sexual services. Some are forcibly recruited or abducted, others are driven to join by poverty, abuse and discrimination, or to seek revenge for violence enacted against themselves and their families."
Disability
CRC Article 23: Children who have any kind of disability should have special care and support, so that they can lead full and independent lives.
According to UNESCO, 90% of children with disabilities in developing countries do not attend school. Disabled people are regularly shunned, isolated and stigmatized by their community, and families often hide disabled children and exclude them from family and community activities.
Drug Abuse
CRC Article 33: The Government should provide ways of protecting children from dangerous drugs.
According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, around 200,000 people die every year from drug-related illnesses. Young people are more susceptible to drug use; in fact, prevalence of drug use among young people is more than twice as high as drug use among the general population. Young people are more vulnerable to the affects of drug use, because their brains are still developing, so taking drugs puts them at greater risk of memory loss, behavioral problems, and even psychosis.
Learn more, and find ways to get involved in fighting drug use and trafficking.
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