Preventing the Preventable: An analysis of CRC concluding observations on the right to survival

How the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child treats newborn and child survival in eleven countries with high levels of child mortality: Bangladesh, China, DRC, Ethiopia, India, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Uganda. Although newborn and child survival is often discussed as a case of political will, in reality state action and the allocation of maximum available resources to reducing child mortality is actually a legal obligation.The focus of the study is specifically on the right to survival from the perspective of the right to health and the right to non-discrimination. Article 6 of the CRC obliges governments to “ensure to the maximum extent possible the survival and development of the child.” Article 24 obliges them to ‘diminish infant and child mortality’ and to guarantee every child the ‘highest attainable standard of health.’ Article 2 includes a positive obligation to ensure children’s right to survival free from discrimination.