According to article 6 CRC, children have a right to life, survival and development. This involves an obligation for States Parties to ensure that children will be able to survive and develop their full potential.

The right to life is “the supreme right from which no derogation is permitted” and “basic to all human rights” (HRC GC 14, para. 1).

Article 6(1) CRC includes both negative and positive obligations:

• Positive obligations: States Parties must take positive actions to ensure that the right to life is respected, fulfilled and protected for all children, including amending legislation, implementing policies, and providing adequate public services. Positive dimensions of the right to life include requiring States Parties to prohibit capital punishment, act against infanticide, investigate and prosecute in cases of loss of life and provide compensation and reparation as appropriate. The right to life is inextricably linked to the right to survival, as it imposes on States Parties the obligation to reduce infant mortality rates, ensure adequate nutrition for children and provide pre- and postnatal care (Vaghri 2022).
• Negative obligations: States Parties cannot act in a way that interferes with children’s right to life.

The obligations to ensure children’s survival are elaborated in different articles of the CRC, such as (Vaghri 2022):

• The right to health (article 24 CRC)
• The right to an adequate standard of living and provision of basic material needs (article 27 CRC)
• The right to recovery and rehabilitation (articles 19 and 39 CRC)
• The right to preventive measures from harm such as the provision of information to children and parent for the optimal development of the child (articles 24, 5, 12, 17 CRC)
• Protection from exploitation and abuse at all times (articles 19, 32–36 CRC)
• The right to survival requires tackling preventable causes of child deaths, such as disease, infections and insufficient nutrition. Duty bearers must take positive steps to enable the child to physically survive childhood.
  • E.g: Realising the right to survival includes tackling infant or under-5 mortality rates (also an obligation under the right to life). SDG 3.2 provides for the end of preventable deaths of newborns and children under 5 years old by 2030.
• The right to survival also requires addressing violence against children, which can severely impact children’s survival and development. (CRC GC 13, para. 15).

Children’s right to development must be interpreted broadly as a holistic concept, “embracing the child’s physical, mental, spiritual, moral, psychological, and social development” (CRC GC 5, para. 12).

Children’s development is also mentioned in other CRC articles, such as:

• Parental responsibilities (article 18 CRC)
• Right of children with disabilities (article 23 CRC)
• Right to an adequate standard of living (article 27 CRC)
• The aims of education (article 29 CRC)
• Protection from economic exploitation (article 32 CRC).
• According to the preamble to the CRC, “for the full and harmonious development of his or her personality, [the child] should grow up in a family environment, in an atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding”, which advocates for, among other things, the recognition of the right of the child not to be separated from his or her parents (article 9 CRC). Peleg (2018)

The SDGs also set targets that promote the child’s right to development. For example, it provides that States should:

• All forms of malnutrition should end by 2030, including targets on stunting and wasting in children under 5 years old (2.2)
• Ensure access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education for all children by 2030 (4.2)
• Ensure free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education for all children (4.1)
• Eliminate gender disparities in education and ensure equal access to all levels of education and vocational training for vulnerable people, including people with disabilities, indigenous people and children in vulnerable situations by 2030 (4.5)
• Eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere (1.1)
• Take immediate and effective measures to secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour and end child labour in all its forms by 2025 (8.7)

The right to life, survival and development should be guaranteed in the legislation.

States Parties should introduce legislation that guarantees access to basic services necessary for the child’s survival and development such as education, health and social protection.

Violence (life threatening and otherwise) against children, abuse and exploitation should be prohibited by law, including corporal punishment in all settings.

The right not to be separated from parents should be upheld in order to protect the right to development (See Evolving capacities of the child and the role of parents below).

All other children’s rights relate in one way or another to the child’s right to development, which advocates for the comprehensive inclusion of children’s rights in legislation.