Women and Children in Poverty - Global Conventions On The Rights Of Women And Children

UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989

In 1989 the United Nations (UN) adopted a treaty called the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Considered one of the most wide-ranging and important human rights documents the global community had ever agreed upon, the CRC was charged with establishing "norms" and standards for the lives of children to which all countries could hold themselves accountable, including:

• Protection from violence, abuse, and abduction
• Protection from hazardous employment and exploitation
• Adequate nutrition
• Free compulsory primary education
• Adequate health care
• Equal treatment regardless of gender, race, or cultural background

The CRC became the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history, passed by 192 countries. As of 2006 only two countries had not ratified it: Somalia and the United States. (Ratification by the United States was hampered by the fact that the Convention forbids capital punishment of minors. Before the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed it in Roper v. Simmons (2005), several states had allowed the death penalty for those who were between sixteen years old and eighteen years old at the time they committed their crimes.)

Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, 1995

In September 1995 at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China, representatives of 189 countries unanimously adopted a program intended to promote gender equality around the world, which became known as the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. One of the main goals outlined by the Platform was addressing the enormous increase of women living in poverty in the late twentieth century—a trend that has come to be known as the "feminization of poverty." The Platform sought to:

• Review, adopt, and maintain macroeconomic policies and development strategies that address the needs and efforts of women in poverty
• Revise laws and administrative practices in order to ensure women's equal rights and access to economic resources
• Provide women with access to savings and credit mechanisms and institutions
• Develop gender-based methodologies and conduct research to address the feminization of poverty

FIGURE 7.1 Status of ratification of major international treaties, September 2005 "Figure 4.1. Status of Ratification of Major International Treaties," in The State of the World's Children 2006, United Nations Children's Fund, 2005, http://www.unicef.org/sowc06/pdfs/sowc0506_eps_charts.pdf (accessed April 8, 2006). Data from United Nations Treaty Collections Databases and ILOLEX of International Labour Standards. Copyright © 2005, International Labour Organization.

UN Millennium Development Goals and Other Conventions

In 2000 all member countries of the United Nations pledged to meet eight human development goals outlined in the Millennium Campaign, an international effort to eradicate extreme poverty, along with its causes and consequences. These Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) include four that specifically address the needs and challenges of women and children affected by poverty:

• Achieve universal primary education
• Promote gender equality and empower women
• Reduce child mortality
• Improve maternal health

The standards of the CRC, the Beijing Platform, and the Millennium Campaign together have led to a global acknowledgment that the protection of children and the eradication of gender disparities are essential to combating poverty. Figure 7.1 shows how many countries have ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (1979), and the International Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labour (1999). Also included is information on the Optional Protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on child prostitution and pornography (2000) and on the involvement of children in armed conflict (2000).