Salient Features of Child Right Convention

The United Nations recognized the special status of a child in a society way back in its Geneva Declaration of the Rights of the Child in 1924. The Government of India acceded to it on 20^th November 1989. As a result, the center follows the salient features of the Preamble of this Child Right Convention (CRC).

Salient Features of CRC:

·        Every child has the right to life and it is the responsibility of the state to ensure the survival and development of the child.

·        The birth of the child should be registered immediately after the event and the child has the right to have a name and acquire a nationality.

·        The state should make sure that the child is not separated from the parents unless it is in the best interest of the child to get separated.

·        The state should recognize the principle that both the parents have common responsibilities in the upbringing of the child.

·        A child whose parents reside in different state has the right to maintain personal and direct relations and contacts with them.

·        The state should respect the right of thought, expression, conscience and religion of the child.

·        A child with no home environment should be provided special protection and help by the state.

·        In case of the adoption of a child, the state must ensure that the best interest of the child gets utmost attention.

·        It is the responsibility of the state to provide a decent and dignified life to mentally and physically handicapped children.

·        The child has the right to enjoy highest attainable standards of physical and mental health and the state should extend facilities for the treatment of illness and rehabilitation of health.

·        The right to education is should be made free and compulsory by the state for all children up to the primary level and education should aim at the holistic development of the personality of the child.

·        Every child should be provided from protection by the state from economic exploitations which hamper the physical, mental, moral and spiritual development.

·        Every child should be protected by the state from sexual exploitations and drug abuses.

·        The state should ensure that no child below the age of 15 years is involved in armed conflicts against the nation.

·        No child below the age of 18 years should be awarded the capital punishment or life imprisonment by the state.