By Aditya Singh Raghav
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“A child is a person who is going to carry on what you have started. He will assume control of your cities, states and nations. He is going to move in and take over your churches, schools, universities and corporations… The fate of humanity is in his hands.”
-
Abraham Lincoln
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) was signed on 30 November 1989
Nelson
Mandela defined it as “that luminous, living document that enshrines the rights
of every child without exception to a life of dignity and self-fulfillment”.
UNCRC consist of 54 articles which focus on children’s rights and the role of
governments to make these rights available to every single child in the
country.
What is in the Convention?
The Convention lays down that fundamental rights of children should be recognized by the government and their basic needs should be fulfilled. Such rights are grouped together in the articles which consist of similar rights as follows:
- Protection Rights – protection from abuse, violence or neglect, including special care for refugee children, safeguards for children in the criminal justice system etc.
- Survival Rights – life, survival and development, basic things like nutrition, shelter, adequate living standard and access to medical services
- Development Rights – requirement of education, cultural activities, access to information and freedom of religion, thought etc.
- Relationship with parents
- Participation Rights – the freedom to express opinions of their own and to be listened to, to join any association and to assemble peacefully, to participate in the activities of society etc.
There are four articles in the convention that are most important for children’s rights. These articles are also known as “General Principles”. These general principles provide insight into all other articles of the convention and play a greater role in realizing all the rights for all the children. These principles are:
- Non-discrimination (article 2) – all rights to be available to all children without any discrimination on any basis
- Best interests of the child (article 3) – all actions should be made in the best interests of the child
- Right to life, survival, and development (article 6)
- Right to be heard (article 12) – children and their opinions should be considered in all the matters which can affect them
Article 1 of Convention defines a child as any human being under the age of 18 years unless the age of majority is attained earlier under national legislation.
UNCRC and its focus on
Juvenile Justice System
Since the UN Convention on the Rights of Children entered into force, in September 1990, new rights have been focused upon in treatment of juvenile offenders. According to UNCRC juvenile offenders are children and are subject to specific rights given in the convention. Articles dealing with juvenile justice system are:
- Article 3 - Best Interest Principle
- Article 12 (1) and (2) - right to be heard and forming own views under rights to express freely
- Article 16(1) - no arbitrary or unlawful interference with privacy, family, home etc.
- Article 37
- (a) - no torture or other cruel, inhumane treatment or punishment
- (b) - no unlawful arrest, detention or imprisonment
- (c) - every child deprived of liberty shall be treated with humanity and respect
- (d) - right to access to prompt legal and other appropriate assistance and right to challenge the legality of deprivation of his or her liberty
- Article 40(1) - states parties need to recognize rights of every child
- Article 40(3) - state parties shall promote establishment of laws, procedure, authorities and institutions applicable to children alleged of infringing the penal law.
UNCRC: Elements of Age and Children in conflict with the law
Minimum Age Criteria
The
minimum age of criminal responsibility is the age below which it is considered
that children do not possess capacity to break the law or do illegal acts.
Children below this minimum age cannot be held responsible of an offence. That
means children at or above this minimum age but younger than 18 are subject to
juvenile justice procedures as established in the convention. Article 40(3)
requires state parties to establish a minimum age below which children shall be
presumed not to have capacity to break the law. For example, in India no person
can be held criminally responsible for an act committed when under the age of 7.
In Germany, no one younger than 14 years of age can be held criminally liable.
Upper age limit
(Criminal Majority)
The
upper age limit to juvenile justice system is the age of criminal majority and
is the limit of age which a person who commits a crime is considered an adult
and is tried in criminal courts as adults. Convention has fixed this upper age
limit at 18 years. Every person under the age of 18 years at the time of
commission of offence has right to be treated in accordance with the juvenile
justice rules which are different for criminal system applicable to adults.
The next article in the series looks at the positions taken by different countries under the CRC.
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Aditya is a 2nd year law student at National Law University Delhi. An adventurous person, he actively participates in sports activities and loves to go trekking. He is a football fan and you can easily find him discussing football matches with his friends. His interests include Commercial Law, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law and Competition Law.
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