Children’s rights: A second chance

An analysis of the implementation of the children’s rights in the first decade since the near universal ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in November 1989 (1999), looking at the impact that local, national and international policies and practices have had on children over the last decade. Part 1 focuses on poverty, which lies behind much of the failure to improve children’s lives; Part 2 examines how global trends – HIV/AIDS, economic globalisation, discrimination and conflict – impact on the lives of these particular children, and millions of other children throughout the world; Part 3 links the failures of this period with the failure to apply the four key principles of the UNCRC – non-discrimination, the best interests of the child, the right to survival and development, and listening to and taking children seriously; and Part 4 looks at what each of the main actors – families, communities, civil society organisations, governments at district and national level, international agencies, donors, business – needs to do to make the next decade a better one for children