Implementing children's rights and health.

Making a commitment to respect the rights of children has profound implications for the status of children in our society. Nowhere is this more evident than in the field of health care where the decisions and actions of professionals impact on children’s lives in profound, intimate, and powerful ways. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child which was ratified by the UK Government in 1991 places a clear obligation on health authorities and practitioners to evolve policy and practice in accordance with the human rights of children. Many of the principles embodied in the Convention are not new. (Many of the rights embodied in the Convention on the Rights of the Child derive from earlier human rights treaties—for example, the UN International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights.) They are already implemented as a matter of good practice by some health bodies. What is new is the recognition that children are subjects of rights, that those rights impose obligations on adults to ensure their implementation, and that it is necessary to address the inter-relation between the rights embodied in the Convention in order to promote respect for children. Its principles and standards provide a holistic framework with which to analyse and develop the care and treatment of children in the health services. Examination of two important principles in the Convention highlights the implications of taking a rights based approach to children.