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Progress on Drinking Water, Sanitation and Hygiene: 2017 Update and SDG Baselines The latest estimates show that some 3 in 10 people worldwide, or 2.1 billion, lack access to safe, readily available water at home, and 6 in 10, or 4.5 billion, lack safely managed sanitation.

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Used by real MUN members!

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For 45 years, IMUNA's conferences have provided top-quality global issues education through simulation. IMUNA is proud to hold conferences in various cities throughout the world. Interested in joining our team or in a partnership opportunity? Email us at info@imuna.org. We'd love to work with you.

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Father "Crucifies" 10 Year Old Son for Not Doing His Homework

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What % of children...?

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Millions of children are excluded from school because of poverty, gender and where they live. Closing the gap is vital if we are to achieve Education for All. Data from the Initiative on Out-of-School Children explains: on.unesco.org/oosci-global

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Interesting article!

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Humanium * We make children's rights happen

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Ending child, early and forced marriage in one of the priorities of U.S. foreign policy, as set in the U.S. Global Strategy to Empower Adolescent Girls of 2016 which strongly condemns this practice in the developing world as a human rights abuse.

This is why it is extremely surprising to learn that, in the United States from 2000 to 2010, "in 38 states, more than 167,000 children - almost all of them girls, some as young 12 - were married [...], mostly to men 18 or older" (Reiss, 2017). More recent numbers were not available for the study conducted by the organization Unchained at Last, fighting child marriage in the U.S. . However, the state of the law in several States nowadays suggests that child marriage in the U.S. is still a reality.

According to the global campaign Girls Not Brides, "child marriage is any formal marriage or informal union where one or both of the parties are under 18 years of age" (UNICEF, 2017). Despite the clear standard of 18 years old, in the State of New York, 14 year olds can be married with parental and judicial consent (Gronewold, 2017). Thus, from 2000 to 2010 in this State alone, 3,850 children were victims of child marriage (HRW, 2017).

According to Reiss, founder of Unchained at Last, every State in the U.S. has exceptions that allow children below 18 to get married with parental consent and judicial approval, sometimes without even specifying an age limit below which a child cannot marry (Reiss, 2017). The youngest married children found by the study of Unchained at Last were 12 years old.
Why would parents consent to marrying their child?
Unchained at Last reports having seen child marriage happen "in nearly every American culture and religion", in immigrant and non-immigrant families (Reiss, 2017). The motivations behind such practice are "cultural or religious traditions; a desire to control their child's behavior or sexuality; money (a bride price or dowry); or immigration-related reasons (for instance, when a child sponsors a foreign spouse)" (Reiss, 2017). Marriage is also often seen as a solution for teen pregnancy. In addition, while some children marry of their own will, this does not exclude negative consequences for them (Reiss, 2017).

Consequences of child marriage
Child marriage has the same detrimental, lifelong effects on girls' health, education and economic opportunities, and increases the risk of domestic violence and poverty, whether they take place in the developing world or in developed countries (UNICEF, 2017). Marriages between two persons with a certain age difference could also fall under statutory rape (Unchained at Last, 2017).

In addition, it is difficult for children victims or at risk of child marriage in the U.S. to seek help. Reis points out that children fleeing their homes are considered runaways, shelters notify parents, and child-protective services cannot prevent legal child marriages (Reiss, 2017). Moreover, children have a limited access to legal aid (Gronewold, 2017).
Why can't a law simply be passed?
If States simply passed a law that set the age of marriage at 18 and above without exceptions, the issue of child marriage in the U.S. would be in theory addressed, preventing many child marriages and helping to provide legal remedies for victims. Legislation on child marriage tends to fail because lawmakers consider that it could impact religious freedom in certain communities, or because they assume that it is "the best solution for a teen pregnancy" (Reiss, 2017). These are false arguments, as no specific religion is targeted by a law forbidding child marriage and there thus is no discriminatory impact on the freedom of any religious community in particular (Reiss, 2017). Regarding the second argument, there are other solutions to support pregnant teens that do not require them to marry (Ibid).

However, there is some hope for progress. Bills were introduced recently for example in the States of Maryland and Massachusetts, and this month a bill was introduced to raise the minimum age for marriage to 17 in the State of New York (Gronewold, 2017). But banning child marriage in a few States only is far from satisfying. If the U.S. were to properly forbid child marriage in every State on its own soil, it would not only have positive repercussions on the rights of girls in the US, but also abroad, as the U.S. would gain the legitimacy to ask for the ban of child marriage everywhere.

Gronewold, A. (2017, February 14). Advocates demand New York lawmakers outlaw child marriage . Retrieved from ABC News: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/advocates-demand-york-lawmakers-outlaw-child-marriage-45495297

HRW. (2017, February 14). US: In New York, Children as Young as 14 Can Marry . Retrieved from Human Rights Watch : https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/02/14/us-new-york-children-young-14-can-marry

Reiss, F. (2017, February 10). Why does the United States still let 12-year-olds get married? Retrieved from The Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2017/02/10/why-does-the-united-states-still-let-12-year-old-girls-get-married/?utm_term=.68ac257e9bb4

Unchained at Last. (2017). Child Marriage in New York . Retrieved from Unchained at Last: http://www.unchainedatlast.org/child-marriage-in-new-york/

UNICEF. (2017). What Is Child Marriage? Retrieved from Girls Not Brides: http://www.girlsnotbrides.org/about-child-marriage/

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Child Marriage in the U.S. : An Unbelievable Reality - Humanium * We make children's rights happen

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Ending child, early and forced marriage in one of the priorities of U.S. foreign policy, as set in the U.S. Global Strategy to Empower Adolescent Girls of 2016 which strongly condemns this practice in the developing world as a human rights abuse. This is why it is extremely surprising to learn that, in the United ...

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Link used in math

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Humanium * We make children's rights happen

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The ranking of the world's countries with respect to the Rights of the Child is determined by the Realization of Children's Rights Index (RCRI).
A rank of 1 indicates the best conditions, while the rank of 196 indicates the most serious offenses.
Rank / Country / RCRI

1. Liechtenstein 9,42

2. San Marino 9,42

3. Andorra 9,36

4. New Zealand 9,35

5. Monaco 9,33

6. Sweden 9,31

7. Netherlands 9,30

8. Finland 9,25

9. Switzerland 9,23

10. Austria 9,18

11. Norway 9,15

12. Germany 9,12

13. Iceland 9,11

14. Japan 9,05

15. United Kingdom 9,03

16. Slovenia 9,03

17. Ireland 9,01

18. Belgium 8,99

19. Barbados 8,97

20. Costa Rica 8,97

21. Canada 8,95

22. France 8,95

23. Lithuania 8,94

24. Denmark 8,92

25. Chile 8,91

26. Cyprus 8,91

27. Malta 8,87

28. Bahamas 8,86

29. Portugal 8,86

30. St. Kitts & Nevis 8,85

31. St. Vincent 8,82

32. Australia 8,80

33. Poland 8,79

34. Slovak Republic/ Slovakia 8,78

35. South Korea 8,76

36. Cook Islands 8,75

37. Spain 8,75

38. Palau 8,74

39. Italy 8,71

40. St. Lucia 8,69

41. Mauritius 8,68

42. Croatia 8,67

43. Grenada 8,67

44. Antigua and Barbuda 8,66

45. Hungary 8,66

46. Czech Republic 8,64

47. Luxembourg 8,61

48. Bulgaria 8,57

49. Estonia 8,56

50. Latvia 8,55

51. Uruguay 8,55

52. Seychelles 8,54

53. Singapore 8,54

54. Montenegro 8,52

55. Serbia 8,51

56. United States of America 8,46

57. Israel 8,46

58. Greece 8,45

59. Dominica 8,41

60. Kosovo 8,41

61. Malaysia 8,41

62. Romania 8,33

63. Argentina 8,27

64. Samoa 8,26

65. Tonga 8,26

66. Micronesia 8,25

67. Panama 8,24

68. Bosnia and Herzegovina 8,20

69. Albania 8,10

70. Tuvalu 8,09

71. Cuba 8,08

72. Jamaica 8,06

73. Maldives 8,04

74. Cape Verde 8,03

75. Kiribati 7,99

76. Macedonia 7,93

77. Brunei 7,92

78. Fidji 7,91

79. Tunisia 7,91

80. Qatar 7,89

81. El Salvador 7,88

82. Jordan 7,85

83. Trinidad and Tobago 7,85

84. Brazil 7,75

85. Bahrain 7,72

86. China 7,72

87. Belize 7,71

88. Armenia 7,70

89. Paraguay 7,63

90. Ukraine 7,61

91. Lebanon 7,60

92. Sri Lanka 7,60

93. Oman 7,59

94. Marshall Islands 7,57

95. Kuwait 7,55

96. Russia 7,52

97. Turkey 7,52

98. Mongolia 7,51

99. Ecuador 7,49

100. Suriname 7,48

101. Saudi Arabia 7,45

102. Thailand 7,44

103. Venezuela 7,41

104. Libya 7,39

105. Moldova 7,36

106. Algeria 7,30

107. Georgia 7,30

108. Kazakhstan 7,30

109. United Arab Emirates 7,28

110. Egypt 7,27

111. Mexico 7,27

112. Belarus 7,26

113. Viet Nam 7,26

114. Solomon Islands 7,25

115. Nauru 7,24

116. Morocco and Western Sahara 7,15

117. Peru 7,15

118. Vanuatu 7,15

119. Guyana 7,14

120. Iran 7,11

121. Colombia 7,07

122. Uzbekistan 7,06

123. Syria 7,04

124. North Korea 7,00

125. Bhutan 6,96

126. Dominican Republic 6,94

127. Philippines 6,87

128. Indonesia 6,85

129. Nicaragua 6,77

130. Azerbaijan 6,76

131. South Africa 6,73

132. Guatemala 6,72

133. Kyrgyzstan 6,71

134. Bolivia 6,61

135. Turkmenistan 6,60

136. Botswana 6,58

137. Palestine 6,55

138. Namibia 6,51

139. Timor-Leste 6,51

140. Iraq 6,40

141. Tajikistan 6,36

142. Gabon 6,26

143. Honduras 6,25

144. São Tomé and Príncipe 6,25

145. Laos 6,16

146. Papua New Guinea 6,08

147. Ghana 5,99

148. Myanmar 5,56

149. India 5,42

150. Togo 5,32

151. Madagascar 5,31

152. Nepal 5,27

153. Djibouti 5,23

154. Cambodia 5,12

155. Malawi 5,03

156. Bangladesh 5,02

157. Kenya 4,90

158. Lesotho 4,88

159. Pakistan 4,87

160. Comoros 4,84

161. Zimbabwe 4,74

162. Swaziland 4,73

163. Haiti 4,64

164. Rwanda 4,45

165. Benin 4,44

166. Republic of the Congo 4,42

167. Tanzania 4,40

168. Senegal 4,34

169. Eritrea 4,18

170. Yemen 4,09

171. Côte d'Ivoire 3,77

172. Cameroon 3,70

173. Gambia 3,68

174. Burundi 3,62

175. Uganda 3,54

176. Mauritania 3,52

177. Angola 3,48

178. Mozambique 3,27

179. Equatorial Guinea 3,24

180. Liberia 2,97

181. Zambia 2,95

182. Nigeria 2,84

183. Sudan 2,81

184. South Sudan 2,70

185. Burkina Faso 2,63

186. Guinea 2,49

187. Ethiopia 2,36

188. Guinea-Bissau 2,21

189. Sierra Leone 2,16

190. Central African Republic 1,98

191. Mali 1,86

192. Niger 1,68

193. Democratic Republic of the Congo 1,67

194. Afghanistan 1,49

195. Somalia 0,14

196. Chad 0,05

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Ranking of countries according to their respect for the Rights of the Child - Humanium * We make children's rights happen

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Ranking of countries according to their respect for the Rights of the Child The ranking of the world's countries with respect to the Rights of the Child is determined by the Realization of Children's Rights Index (RCRI). A rank of 1 indicates the best conditions, while the rank of 196 indicates the most serious offenses.

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How did it begin?

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Humanium * We make children's rights happen

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The Beginnings of the Convention
In the absence of any legally binding text, it seemed difficult to effectively protect children's rights. Thus, in 1978, Poland proposed the idea of a Convention on the Rights of the Child that would be legally binding for all nations.
The Polish Initiative

On February 7th, 1978, Poland presented the idea of a United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The bill consists of nineteen articles, of which ten are legislative, and nine procedural. In contrast to the prior Geneva Declaration, this Convention is supposed to be binding for states.

Seizing on the anniversary of the Geneva Declaration, Poland thought that such a Convention on the Rights of the Child would be able to be adopted from 1979 onward. In reality, it took ten years for a bill to gain the unanimous support of the international community.

1979: International Year of the Child

In order to promote awareness and to encourage states to act towards the protection and the assurance of children's rights, the United Nations declared 1979 the "International Year of the Child".

The Working Group

In the spring of 1979, the Commission on Human Rights decided to create a working group charged with writing this future Convention on the Rights of the Child.

What made this working group special was that it was composed of an unlimited number of members, associated with organizations including the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), different non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and the forty-eight member states of the Commission on Human Rights.

This working group met once per year in Geneva, Switzerland. The system by which the bill was written was one of consensus and political compromise, in order to achieve unanimity.

Though this system allowed it to better satisfy each government, it removed a number of details, and was thus criticized by lawyers for not following a pure legal logic.

Technical Revision of the Proposed Convention

In 1988, the legal bureau of the United Nations carried out a technical revision of the proposed Convention, to submit its remarks to the working group, so that the bill would be compatible with the other international instruments guaranteeing and protecting human rights.

The Adoption of the Convention

On November 20th, 1989, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child as part of Resolution 44/25.

The adoption of the Convention put an end to a process lasting almost ten years.

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The Beginnings of the Convention on the Rights of the Child - Humanium * We make children's rights happen

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The Convention on the Rights of the Child The Beginnings of the Convention In the absence of any legally binding text, it seemed difficult to effectively protect children's rights. Thus, in 1978, Poland proposed the idea of a Convention on the Rights of the Child that would be legally binding for all nations.