RES/37/20 Rights of the child: protection of the rights of the child in humanitarian situations



Human Rights Council Thirty-seventh session

26 February–23 March 2018

Agenda item 3

Resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council on 23 March 2018

37/20. Rights of the child: protection of the rights of the child in humanitarian

situations

The Human Rights Council,

Emphasizing that the Convention on the Rights of the Child constitutes the standard

in the promotion and protection of the rights of the child and, bearing in mind the

importance of the Optional Protocols to the Convention, calling for their universal

ratification and effective implementation,

Recalling all previous resolutions on the rights of the child of the Commission on

Human Rights, the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly, the most recent

being Council resolution 34/16 of 24 March 2017 and Assembly resolution 72/245 of 24

December 2017,

Reaffirming General Assembly resolution 46/182 of 19 December 1991 and the

guiding principles contained in the annex thereto,

Reaffirming also the principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and

independence in the provision of humanitarian assistance,

Reaffirming further that the general principles of the Convention on the Rights of

the Child, including the best interests of the child, non-discrimination, participation,

survival and development, provide the framework for all actions concerning children,

Welcoming the work of the Committee on the Rights of the Child and of other treaty

bodies, and noting in particular the general comments of the Committee,

Welcoming also the attention paid by the special procedures of the Human Rights

Council to the rights of the child in the context of their respective mandates, in particular

the work of the Special Rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children,

including child prostitution, child pornography and other child sexual abuse material and

the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, as well as

the work of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against

Children and the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed

Conflict, and taking note of their most recent reports,1

1 A/HRC/37/60, A/72/164, A/HRC/37/48 and A/HRC/37/47.

Acknowledging that international humanitarian law and international human rights

law are complementary and mutually reinforcing,

Recognizing that humanitarian situations compromise the effective enjoyment of the

rights of the child, including the rights to life, to survival, to development, to family

relations and not to be separated from one’s parents against one’s will unless necessary for

the best interests of the child, to the highest attainable standard of health, to an adequate

standard of living, to education, to recreation and play and to be protected from all forms of

violence, abuse, neglect or exploitation,

Recognizing also the work undertaken on a global compact on refugees and a global

compact for safe, orderly and regular migration, to be considered for adoption in 2018, and

recalling the importance of protecting the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all

refugee and migrant children, with the best interests of the child as a primary consideration,

Mindful of the commitment of States to work towards ending the detention of

children for the purpose of determining their migration status in a manner that takes into

account as a primary consideration the best interests of the child, in accordance with the

New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants,

Profoundly concerned that children in many parts of the world remain negatively

affected by the impact of climate change, natural disasters and extreme weather events,

including persistent drought, land degradation, sea level rise, coastal erosion and ocean

acidification, which further threaten health, food security and efforts to eradicate poverty

and achieve sustainable development, and in this regard calling for the implementation of

the Paris Agreement adopted under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate

Change,

Recognizing that children are disproportionately affected in complex humanitarian

emergencies, which increases their vulnerability as refugees, asylum seekers, internally

displaced persons, stateless persons, migrants and those remaining in areas of armed

conflict, in particular when they are unaccompanied and separated,

Recalling that, around the world, nearly 50 million children have migrated across

borders or been forcibly displaced, including more than 10 million child refugees, 1 million

child asylum seekers and another 20 million migrant children who have crossed

international borders, an estimated 17 million children internally displaced due to conflict

and violence and more than 300,000 unaccompanied and separated children, and that

children now comprise half of all refugees,

Recognizing the particular vulnerability of girls and boys to violence, including

trafficking in persons, sale, sexual violence and abuse and other forms of exploitation, in

the context of humanitarian situations,

Recognizing also the psychological distress that humanitarian situations cause

children and their families, putting children at heightened risk for impaired developmental

and health outcomes that can follow them throughout their lives,

1. Takes note with appreciation of the report of the United Nations High

Commissioner for Human Rights on protecting the rights of the child in humanitarian

situations;2

2. Calls upon States to take all measures necessary to ensure the enjoyment by

children of all their human rights, without discrimination of any kind, including in the

context of humanitarian situations;

3. Also calls upon States to give particular attention to the rights of the child in

the context of humanitarian situations, consistent with their obligations under international

human rights law and, as applicable, international humanitarian and refugee law;

4. Recalls the obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child that

States undertake to respect and ensure respect for rules of international humanitarian law

2 A/HRC/37/33.

applicable to them in armed conflicts which are relevant to the child, and their obligation

under international humanitarian law to protect the civilian population in armed conflicts,

and calls upon States to take all feasible measures to ensure the protection and care of

children who are affected by an armed conflict;

5. Urges States to provide age-, disability- and gender-sensitive humanitarian

assistance, including specialized child protection services, to children in the context of

humanitarian situations, including refugee and displaced children, that takes into account

the particular vulnerabilities and specific protection needs of children, including those who

have been forced to flee violence, who have suffered persecution, who are the primary

caregivers of families, who have disabilities or who are unaccompanied or separated;

6. Also urges States, in accordance with their obligations under international

law, to take all appropriate steps to facilitate the reunification of families separated in

armed conflict, including, where relevant, by establishing a national bureau to receive

information from and transmit information to family members, by supplying to the Central

Tracing Agency of the International Committee of the Red Cross information concerning

persons reported missing and by encouraging the work of the humanitarian organizations

engaged in the task of family tracing and reunification, and, in cases where no parents or

other family members of a child can be found, to ensure that the child is accorded the same

protection as any other child permanently or temporarily deprived of his or her family

environment for any reason;

7. Calls upon States to put in place, if they have not yet done so, appropriate

policies, systems and procedures to ensure that the best interests of the child are a primary

consideration in all actions or decisions concerning migrant children, regardless of their

migration status, and to use alternatives to the detention of migrant children, including by

promoting the use of non-custodial solutions, implemented by competent child protection

actors engaging with the child and, where applicable, his or her family;

8. Urges States, in accordance with their obligations under international law, to

take all feasible measures to ensure that children who have not yet attained the age of 18 do

not take direct part in hostilities, to refrain from recruiting children under the age of 15 into

their armed forces, and to ensure that persons who have not attained the age of 18 are not

compulsorily recruited into their armed forces;

9. Strongly condemns the recruitment and use of children in violation of

applicable international law, and calls upon States to take all feasible measures to

implement effective measures for the rehabilitation and physical and psychological

recovery of those who have been so recruited or used and for their reintegration into

society, in particular through educational measures, taking into account the rights and

specific needs of girls;

10. Urges States to ensure that timely and adequate funding and attention is

dedicated to children in the contexts of national disarmament, demobilization and

reintegration programmes and of settlement, rehabilitation and reintegration efforts for

children associated with armed forces and groups, including detained children, and to

secure the long-term sustainability of such efforts;

11. Calls upon States to protect children in the context of humanitarian situations

from all forms of sale of children, including illegal adoption, and from all forms of

trafficking in persons, including by training all stakeholders to identify potential child

victims of trafficking and children at risk of being trafficked;

12. Welcomes the determination of the Secretary-General to implement fully the

United Nations policy of zero tolerance of sexual exploitation and abuse;

13. Invites all stakeholders to promote the use of the Inter-Agency Standing

Committee’s Guidelines for Integrating Gender-based Violence Interventions in

Humanitarian Action, the Minimum Standards for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action

and the Inter-Agency Guiding Principles on Unaccompanied and Separated Children;

14. Calls upon States to develop, in consultation with children consistent with

their evolving capacities, and integrate into humanitarian responses, from the early stages

of humanitarian emergencies, measures to address the increased vulnerability of girls to

child, early and forced marriage and to protect children, especially girls, from sexual and

gender-based violence, exploitation and abuse during humanitarian emergencies and

situations of forced displacement, armed conflict and natural disaster, including by ensuring

that health-care and education services, goods and facilities are available, accessible,

acceptable and of quality and that safe counselling, reporting and complaint mechanisms

are available to and accessible by all child victims of violence, including sexual violence;

15. Reminds States of their obligation to register all births without discrimination

of any kind, and also reminds States that birth registration should take place immediately

after birth, in the country where children are born, including the children of migrants, non-

nationals, asylum seekers, refugees, displaced and stateless persons, in accordance with

their national law and their obligations under the relevant international instruments, that late

birth registration should be limited to those cases that would otherwise result in a lack of

registration and that the child has the rights from birth to a name, to acquire a nationality

and, as far as possible, to know and be cared for by his or her parents;

16. Calls upon States to take all appropriate measures to permanently store and

protect civil registration records and to prevent the loss or destruction of records due to,

inter alia, natural disasters, emergencies or armed conflict situations, including through the

use of digital and new technologies as a means to facilitate and universalize access to civil

registration records, including birth registration;

17. Urges States, with the collaboration of relevant stakeholders and considering

their obligation to ensure to the maximum extent possible the survival and development of

the child, to take all measures necessary to ensure that no child is denied access to

humanitarian assistance and to meet the needs of children in the context of humanitarian

situations, including protection from all forms of violence, exploitation and abuse,

including sexual and gender-based violence, the provision of safe drinking water and

sanitation, food, shelter and health-care services, including with regard to immunization,

nutrition, mental and psychological support and sexual and reproductive health-care

services, rehabilitation and education;

18. Calls upon States to ensure that all decision-making and assessments

regarding children in the context of humanitarian situations are age-, gender- and disability-

sensitive, and that civil registration and vital statistics are an integral part of humanitarian

assessments;

19. Strongly condemns acts of violence, attacks and threats against the wounded

and sick, medical personnel and humanitarian personnel exclusively engaged in medical

duties, their means of transport and equipment, as well as hospitals and other medical

facilities, and the long-term consequences of such attacks for the civilian population, in

particular children, and for the health-care systems of the countries concerned;

20. Urges States, in accordance with their obligations under relevant provisions

of international human rights law, including the right of the child to the enjoyment of the

highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, to promote the availability,

quality, accessibility and acceptability of health-care services;

21. Calls upon States to respect, protect and fulfil the right of all children to

education, including through increased emphasis on inclusive and quality education, and to

promote school enrolment and retention among girls and children in vulnerable situations,

such as children with disabilities, including in secondary school;

22. Strongly condemns all attacks directed against civilian objects dedicated to

educational purposes and on their students and staff, including attacks aiming at spreading

terror among the civilian population, calls upon States to continue to make efforts to

strengthen the protection of preschools, schools and universities against attacks, including

by taking measures to deter the military use of schools in violation of applicable

international law, recognizes the negative impact that such attacks have on the progressive

realization of the right to education, and encourages efforts to provide an inclusive,

enabling and secure environment to ensure the safety of schools;

23. Encourages States to contemplate non-formal learning in the context of

emergency response plans when formal education is not possible in order to ensure that

education continues to be delivered;

24. Encourages States, local authorities, the United Nations system, regional

organizations and civil society, and invites donors and other assisting countries, to address

the vulnerabilities and capacities of children, particularly girls, through gender-responsive

programming, including with regard to sexual and reproductive health and the means to

prevent and respond to sexual and gender-based violence, various forms of exploitation and

neglect, and harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage, during

emergencies and in post-disaster environments, and through the allocation of resources in

their disaster risk reduction, response and recovery efforts, in coordination with the

Governments of affected countries;

25. Calls upon States to promote the meaningful participation of and active

consultation with children and adolescents affected by humanitarian situations on all issues

affecting them, and to raise awareness about their rights through safe spaces, forums and

support networks that provide children with information, life skills and leadership skills

training and opportunities to be empowered, to express themselves and to participate

meaningfully, consistent with their evolving capacities, during and after an emergency;

26. Also calls upon States to ensure that the best interests of the child are a

primary consideration in all actions concerning children, and recommends that States, in

cooperation with international organizations and civil society, and the private sector as

appropriate:

(a) Conduct child-inclusive planning and assess child protection needs and

vulnerabilities when making age-, disability- and gender-sensitive provisions for

emergency preparedness, humanitarian response and assistance;

(b) Promote child-centred innovation, empowering children to be agents of

positive change and building their resilience through the development of innovative child-

centred participatory approaches, encourage children to be involved in their own protection,

and support them in developing self-protective skills;

(c) Fully consider the needs of children affected by armed conflict, including

with regard to rehabilitation and reintegration;

(d) Mainstream prevention of and protection from sexual exploitation and abuse,

child, early and forced marriage, female genital mutilation and violence against children,

including sexual and gender-based violence, into emergency and humanitarian responses,

and address the underlying factors that make children, especially girls, particularly

vulnerable to these practices;

(e) Work to prevent family separation in the context of humanitarian situations

and ensure without delay family tracing and reunification where it occurs, allocate

sufficient resources to family reunification procedures to ensure the operational capacity to

carry out evaluations in a reasonable time frame and to reduce the overall length of the

process, and provide alternative care for children deprived of parental care or who are at

risk of being so, taking into account the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children;

(f) Provide age-appropriate and gender-sensitive mental health and psychosocial

support tailored to children in the context of humanitarian situations, based on respect for

human rights and for their dignity, integrity and autonomy, to prevent and address distress,

fear and trauma and to help to build their resilience; in particular, where a child has been a

victim of violence or exploitation or has acquired an injury or disability, adopt durable

solutions to ensure that the child has access to long-term care and protection, including

health care, psychosocial support, social services and education, including human rights

education, vocational training and life skills education;

(g) Increase and improve financing for education in emergencies so that

children’s right to education is recognized as a critical part of humanitarian responses;

(h) Create quality and meaningful child-friendly and gender-sensitive spaces to

provide nurturing environments where children have access to play, recreation, leisure and

learning activities, with child-friendly spaces serving as a referral mechanism to other

services as appropriate, and to help to restore a sense of normality and continuity;

(i) Work towards ensuring that no child is denied access to humanitarian

assistance and that all children are registered and identified;

(j) Ensure the safety and security of humanitarian personnel, and that

humanitarian aid is delivered without impediment and in accordance with humanitarian

principles;

Follow-up

27. Encourages the special procedures and other human rights mechanisms of the

Human Rights Council to continue to integrate a child rights perspective while

implementing their mandates, and to include in their reports information, qualitative

analysis and recommendations on child rights;

28. Invites all human rights treaty bodies to continue to integrate the rights of the

child into their work, in particular in their concluding observations, general comments and

recommendations;

29. Requests the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to

contribute to the work of the high-level political forum on sustainable development on the

follow-up to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in consultation with relevant

stakeholders, including the United Nations Children’s Fund, other relevant United Nations

bodies and agencies, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence

against Children and the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and

Armed Conflict, relevant special procedure mandate holders, regional organizations and

human rights bodies, and civil society, in particular by providing comprehensive inputs

from a child rights perspective to the yearly thematic reviews of progress at the forum,

focusing on achievements and challenges, and taking into account the implementation of

recommendations contained in previous Human Rights Council resolutions on the rights of

the child;

30. Decides to continue its consideration of the question of the rights of the child

in accordance with its programme of work and its resolutions 7/29 of 28 March 2008 and

19/37 of 23 March 2012, and to focus its next annual full-day meeting on the theme

“Empowering children with disabilities for the enjoyment of their human rights, including

through inclusive education”, and requests the High Commissioner to prepare a report on

that theme, in close cooperation with all relevant stakeholders, including States, the United

Nations Children’s Fund, other relevant United Nations bodies and agencies, the Special

Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children, the Special

Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, relevant special

procedure mandate holders, regional organizations and human rights bodies, national

human rights institutions and civil society, including children themselves, and to present it

to the Human Rights Council at its fortieth session, with a view to providing information

for the annual day of discussion on the rights of the child.

54th meeting

23 March 2018

[Adopted without a vote.]