Terre des Hommes and partners urge the United Nations and member governments to take decisive action to integrate children’s rights into all aspects of their work.

During the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council, which met today in Geneva for the Annual Meeting on the Rights of the Child, an important discussion was held about ensuring children’s rights are properly considered and addressed across the whole UN system.

More coordinated action is urgently needed to support children who are affected by a multiplicity of crises throughout the world. Recognising this, the United Nations Secretary-General recently issued guidance mandating the entire UN system to make all its work child sensitive.

We welcome this Child Rights Mainstreaming guidance and call for a child-rights approach at all levels and across all pillars of the UN, and within governments’ national systems and policies. Crucially, children should be partners in the work, and be supported to participate in a meaningful, safe and inclusive way.

More concretely, Terre des Hommes and partners are calling on the United Nations and Member States to:

• Take measures to ensure the Human Rights Council consistently monitors progress on how child rights are being mainstreamed in practice;
• Provide more resources to OHCHR – the Human Rights agency of the United Nations – to implement child rights mainstreaming; and
• Put in place and fund sustainable ways to support the ethical, meaningful, and safe participation of children in all their diversity in decision-making processes at country level, as well as in regional and international spaces.

Read the full statement here.

Picture courtesy of: ©Tdh/Florian Cella