How to use United Nations Human Rights Resolutions to Advance Children’s Rights

Every year, United Nations (UN) intergovernmental bodies, such as the UN General Assembly and the UN Human Rights Council, adopt several resolutions negotiated among States, which include political expressions and policy recommendations on issues relating to international law, human rights, peace, justice, and security. These documents, which are not always common knowledge and can be difficult to access, can be extremely useful in supporting and advancing your work on children’s rights at all levels.

This guide aims to inspire and enable civil society practitioners to make the most of human rights resolutions adopted by the UN to advance children’s rights, especially in their countries. To that end, it provides a step-by-step plan of action, case studies and practical tips and tools to help you on this journey.

Who is this guide for?

This guide aims to assist all civil society organisations (CSOs), human rights defenders, and practitioners, whether they are familiar with the UN human rights system or not. It is designed so that you can access the different sections you need according to your knowledge and experience of the UN human rights system.

Depending on the resources, size, network and priorities of your organisation or coalition, you may be able to undertake all, or some of the activities suggested in the guide. 

The focus of the guide

This guidance focuses on UN human rights resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly (UNGA) and the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) which may be relevant to children’s rights, but it can generally apply to other resolutions or conclusions adopted by other bodies of the UN system relevant to human rights (e.g. the UN Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, and the Commission on the Status of Women) and regional human rights bodies.

This guidance is developed as part of the How to Child Rights series, which is a series of practical, high quality, tried and tested tools and guidance on new and emerging themes related to children’s rights developed by civil society for civil society. The purpose of the series is to support effective programming and advocacy for children’s rights across the civil society sector.