Street Children’s rights

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child recognises that every child should have the opportunity of a full, healthy and dignified life.

In particular, children have a right to:

* be heard and taken seriously (article 12) * be protected from violence (article 19)

* an adequate standard of living (article 27) and to be able to access healthcare (article 24) and education (article 28).

There’s an excellent summary of all 42 articles in the UNICEF Children’s Rights leaflet which can be downloaded.

Children, everywhere, have a right to:

  • survival
  • liberty, and
  • an education.

SSSK supports NGOs who are working with street-connected children to provide the facilities through which these rights can be upheld in a variety of countries. The NGOs also give children a voice, so that they can express their hopes for the future, and their views about how they can achieve what they are aiming for.

CSC Advocacy is based around the UN Rights of the Child General Comment 21

see: https://www.streetchildren.org/our-work/advocacy/ and they have mounted a campaign titled Four Steps to Equality. The Consortium says that the advocacy work unites the Network and its supporters to make street-connected children’s voices heard at the national and international levels so they are able to access the same rights owed to every other child. It’s a daunting task – but one we have started to make happen.