Children's Rights
As human beings, children are entitled to all the rights guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but children also need special protection and care. Children's human rights are the blocks with which we build a human rights culture in societies and secure human rights for future generations. Take action to protect and promote the human rights of children around the world. Learn more. »
Children can and do commit terrible crimes, however, when they do, they should be held accountable in a manner that reflects both their culpability and their special capacity for rehabilitation. » More actions
Human Rights Goals
- Child Soldiers
- Around the world today, children are increasingly not only war's victims, but also its combatantsAn estimated 300,000 children under the age of eighteen are currently participating in armed conflicts in more than thirty different countries on nearly every continent. While most child soldiers are in their teens, some are as young as seven years old.
- Stop Child Executions!
- International law prohibits the use of the death penalty for crimes committed by people younger than 18, yet some countries continue to execute child offenders or sentence them to death. As a step towards the total abolition of the death penalty around the world, Amnesty International has launched an international Stop Child Executions! campaign, calling for an end to one of the most heinous manifestations of the death penalty -- its use against child offenders
- Convention on the Rights of the Child
- On November 20, 1989 the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child, a landmark for human rights. Here for the first time was a treaty that sought to address the particular human rights of children and to set minimum standards for the protection of their rights. It is the only international treaty to guarantee civil and political rights as well as economic, social, and cultural rights.
- Bringing Human Rights into the Classroom
- Through its work on human rights education, Amnesty International is committed to raising awareness of the basic rights and responsibilities that each individual possesses and to building a culture of respect for human rights.
