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Child Rights Governance

Save the Children has a strong, long-standing commitment to the advancement of all children’s rights, for every child, everywhere – in both emergency and longer-term development contexts. This commitment goes right back to the early years of the organisation’s foundation and is now part of the organisation’s DNA, uniting the efforts of Save the Children’s international and domestic programmes across the world. Child Rights Governance, which is one of Save the Children’s global themes (Read more about the Child Rights Governance Global Theme >>), aims to support and if necessary put pressure on states to establish the systems necessary to make child rights a reality, and addresses the systemic, underlying and/or structural aspects that enable or hinder children’s rights.

There is little doubt that (in general) it is better to be a child now than in the past but many children still do not have an equal chance to fulfil their potential. There are many reasons for this. Governments do not always have children's best interests in mind when they make decisions that affect them and their families. Children are often last in line in a list of competing priorities. Many do not see children as citizens in their own right and do not listen to them when they explain what they need and want. They also do not spend enough money on children’s health, education or protection. Save the Children and Child Rights Governance works to change this.

It is essential that governments put the necessary measures in place to deliver on children’s rights and that they must invest much more, and more effectively, in children.

States have the main responsibility but cannot alone guarantee children’s rights. In a global community, we all need to take responsibility for how the world treats children; donors, business, politicians, civil servants, civil society groups and citizens alike.

Save the Children believes that civic action is needed to make children’s rights a reality. A strong civil society where children and their communities hold states and the international community to account is crucial. Children‘s own ability, agency and contributions are essential for making the world a better place for children. A society that allows its children to exercise their civil rights and freedoms will gain from their creativity and innovations.

Photo: Dorothy Sang/Save the Children

Documents (424)

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  1. Recommended
    Getting a Better Deal for Children: Save the Children's Child Rights Governance Strategy 2016-2018

    This is the simplified strategy for Child Rights Governance within Save the Children for the period 2016- 2018. It looks at past and future work and includes information about the following: What is Child Rights Governance Why is Child Rights Governance i

    Publication year: 2016 Publisher(s): Save the Children Author(s): Grant, Jennifer

  2. Recommended
    Child Rights Governance: Thematic Plan 2016-18

    Save the Children is committed to ensuring that all rights set out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and its Optional Protocols are fulfilled – now, in times of crisis, and in the future, for all children including those

    Publication year: 2016 Publisher(s): Save the Children Author(s): Grant, Jennifer | Steffen, Lene

  3. Recommended
    Enabling the Exercise of Civil and Political Rights: The views of children

    Save the Children’s Child Rights Governance Global Theme, through Save the Children Denmark, contracted the Centre for Children’s Rights (CCR) at Queen’s University Belfast to support this study on children’s experiences of exercising their civil and poli

    Publication year: 2016 Publisher(s): Save the Children International | Centre for Children's Rights, Queen ... Author(s): Orr, Karen | Emerson, Lesley | Lundy, Laura | Royal-Dawson, Lucy | Jim ...

  4. Recommended
    Public Budgets: How Governments Should Spend Money for Children's Rights

    This child friendly document provides information on General Comment No. 19 on Public Budgeting for the Realization of Children’s Rights. General Comment No. 19 recommends open, inclusive and accountable resource mobilization, budget allocation and spendi

    Publication year: 2016 Publisher(s): Centre for Children's Rights, Queen's University Belfast

  5. Recommended
    UNCRC General Comment No. 19 (2016) on public budgeting for the realization of children’s rights (art. 4)

    UN Committee on the Rights of the Child General Comment No. 19 on Public Budgeting for the Realization of Children’s Rights is the first UN document to provide detailed guidance to states on their legal obligation to invest in children. Since its adoption

    Publication year: 2016 Publisher(s): UNCRC, United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child

  6. Recommended
    Child Rights Governance Programming Guidance. Save the Children's Child Rights Governance Global Initiative (CRGI)

    Work on Child Rights Governance (CRG) aims to build societies that fulfil children's rights by establishing and strengthening the governance system necessary for states to effectively implement the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNC

    Publication year: 2014 Publisher(s): Save the Children Author(s): Grant, Jennifer

  7. Recommended
    Child Rights Governance Analysis Tool

    In 2010 Save the Children International created a sixth sector of work (alongside child survival, education, child protection, emergencies, and HIV and AIDS), called Child Rights Governance (CRG). In order for Save the Children International to have strat

    Publication year: 2012 Publisher(s): Save the Children Author(s): Grant, Jennifer

  8. Recommended
    Child Rights Governance: Safeguarding civil society space for children

    Save the Children (SC) has a strong track record in fighting for children’s rights to become children’s realities. SC believes that an empowered civil society is a key indicator of the sort of open, inclusive and accountable governance, which is necessary

    Publication year: 2016 Publisher(s): Save the Children Author(s): Grant, Jennifer | Dolk, Andreas

  9. Recommended
    Speaking Out: Safeguarding civil society space for children, Policy Brief

    Save the Children believes that a strong, diverse and independent civil society can play an important role in ensuring the realisation of children’s rights. This policy brief outlines why Save the Children believes that civil society is important for chil

    Publication year: 2015 Publisher(s): Save the Children

  10. Recommended
    Child Rights Governance Impact Story: Save the Children's advocacy for investment in children at the UN Human Rights Council

    One of the biggest barriers to the realization of children’s rights is the lack of sufficient, equitable and efficient public spending to realize these rights. Almost all countries in the world have ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (U

    Publication year: 2015 Publisher(s): Save the Children

  11. Recommended
    Child Parliament

    "Child Parliament" is a platform for children from every corner of Bangladesh, and from all walks of life, to get together and debate the issues that most affect them in a mock parliamentary forum. The 13th session of the “Child Parliament” was held on 31

    Publication year: 2016 Publisher(s): Save the Children

  12. Recommended
    A Catalogue of Common Approaches: Delivering our best work for children

    This catalogue showcases the common approaches that Save the Children currently has and those that are in the pipeline for 2018. Each approach addresses a particular problem – such as how to help children read and write; how to keep them safe in their own

    Publication year: 2018 Publisher(s): Save the Children

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Child Rights Governance Global Theme

Child Rights Governance, CRG, is one of five global themes prioritized by Save the Children to deliver its new strategy.

Around the world, millions of children continue to suffer widespread and severe violations of their rights. Many of the problems children face today can be attributed to poor governance, which is characterized by corruption, lack of capacity or political will, illicit financial flows (mainly through tax evasion and avoidance) and insufficient budget allocations.

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