Children need a lot of things to live, such as food, water, clean air and good housing. But they also need protection from violence and abuse, including neglect or lack of care by people who look after them – such as parents or other adults. And they need to be able to participate in decisions that affect them. These rights are the basis of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which all countries that belong to the United Nations must ratify.

The Convention outlines the basic rights of all children and sets out a vision for a world in which all children have the same opportunities to live their lives to the fullest. It is based on the idea that children are neither property of their parents or helpless objects of charity, but human beings who have a right to protection, development and participation in decisions that affect them.

It calls for national plans of action to combat devastating emergencies resulting from natural disasters and armed conflict and the equally grave problems of extreme poverty. It also urges countries to protect children from exploitation and abuse, such as harmful work, the use of drugs, sexual exploitation, human trafficking, corporal punishment, emotional and psychological abuse, and war. It also requires that children be free to seek legal and medical assistance, that children whose rights are violated have access to effective remedy and that abusers of children receive the harshest possible penalties under the law.

One of the biggest changes brought about by the Convention was a shift in thinking about the basic needs of children, from considering them as something to be merely provided for as a matter of course to viewing them as a fundamental human right that governments must make sure everyone has. For example, in some countries there is now a general recognition that every child has the right to affordable healthcare and to food. Some governments have even made it a policy to provide money to help poor families afford these essentials.

The Convention also makes clear that all children have a right to privacy, and this must be respected in law. This includes the right to have their personal documentation, family home and communication not published in public. They should also be protected from art designed to traumatize, provoke or disturb them, and they should have the right to access, create and engage in cultural activities that are representative of their own communities.