UNICEF: Ensure Child Rights

UNICEF: Ensure Child Rights

Part of: GS Prelims and GS Mains II – International Bodies

In News

• Children’s rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression, including in peaceful protest, are enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)
• UNCRC is a human rights treaty which sets out the civil, political, economic, social, health and cultural rights of children. The Convention defines a child as any human being under the age of eighteen.
• The treaty came into force in 1990.Currently, 196 countries have signed and ratified it (including India) except the United States (signed but not ratified)
• UNICEF thus urged its member-states to ensure that children can exercise this right in a safe and peaceful manner.

About United Nations International Children’s Education Fund(UNICEF)

• UNICEF was created in 1946 as International Children’s Emergency Fund (ICEF) by UN relief Rehabilitation Administration to help children affected by World War II
• UNICEF became a permanent part of the United Nations in 1953 and is devoted to aiding national efforts to improve the health, nutrition, education, and general welfare of children.