Rights of the Child

A/RES/78/187View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 67 Promotion and protection of the rights of children, published in 2023.

What other versions does this mandate have?

23 versions · 2003–2025

This is an older version — the most recent is A/RES/80/190

Year	Symbol	Title	Word length	Text similarity
2025	A/RES/80/190	Rights of the child	9,397	42%Compare
2023	A/RES/78/187	Rights of the child	10,005	32%Compare
2022	A/RES/76/147	Rights of the child	8,383	40%Compare
2020	A/RES/74/133	Rights of the child	7,470	29%Compare
2019	A/RES/73/155	Rights of the child	8,245	31%Compare

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

1 entity

Entity	(Sub-)Programme	Title	Total mandates cited	Expenditure
	Section 1	Overall policymaking, direction and coordination	12

Historical expenditure covers the complete programme or subprogramme, not this mandate. For an overview of all UN entities and programmes, see UN entities and programmes.

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

1 entity

Entity	(Sub-)Programme	Title	Total mandates cited	Expenditure
	Section 1	Overall policymaking, direction and coordination	12	—

Historical expenditure covers the complete programme or subprogramme, not this mandate. For an overview of all UN entities and programmes, see UN entities and programmes.

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

29 reports · 2003–2026

Year	Symbol	Title	Mandate resolution
2026	A/81/81	Follow-up to the outcome of the special session of the General Assembly on children report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/76/147
2025	A/80/296	Status of the Convention on the Rights of the Child report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/78/187
2024	A/79/274	Follow-up to the outcome of the special session of the General Assembly on children report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/76/147
2023	A/78/366	Status of the Convention on the Rights of the Child report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/76/147
2022	A/77/309	Follow-up to the outcome of the special session of the General Assembly on children report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/76/147

What subjects does this mandate have?

8 subjects

Anti-Discrimination Measures Child Abuse Child Welfare Children in Armed Conflicts Data Protection Digital Divide Digital Technology Rights of the Child

What’s in this document?

73 operative paragraphs

Recognizes that the Convention on the Rights of the Child is the human rights treaty with the largest number of ratifications, and acknowledges that the Convention and the Optional Protocols thereto contain a comprehensive set of international legal standards for the protection and well-being of children;

Recalls that, in line with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, States parties should undertake all appropriate measures for the effective implementation of the rights recognized therein, and underlines that this includes the rights of the child in relation to the digital environment;

Calls upon States parties to increase their efforts for the full implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child;

Urges States to review, adopt and update national legislation in line with their international human rights obligations and commitments to ensure that the digital environment is compatible with the rights set out in the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Optional Protocols thereto and other relevant human rights instruments;

Also urges States to ensure that the best interests of the child is a primary consideration in decision-making related to the rights of the child in the digital environment, by considering the critical importance of child rights impact assessments of relevant laws, standards and policies to evaluate their actual impact on the rights of the child, and encourages the implementation of the child rights impact assessment and safeguarding principles by businesses in the digital environment;

Urges States that have not yet done so to consider becoming parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Optional Protocols thereto as a matter of priority and to implement them effectively, and encourages further efforts by the Secretary-General in this regard;

Urges States parties to withdraw reservations that are incompatible with the object and purpose of the Convention on the Rights of the Child or the Optional Protocols thereto and to consider reviewing regularly other reservations with a view to withdrawing them in accordance with the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action;

Calls upon States to ensure the enjoyment by all children of all their civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights without discrimination of any kind;

Highlights the importance of promoting and protecting the right of the child to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications, and to this end notes the importance of bridging digital divides, promoting digital literacy as well as public awareness and understanding of new and emerging digital technologies, promoting risk awareness and self-protection training and guidance, and supporting capacity-building initiatives to enhance understanding, knowledge and skills relating to the human rights implications of new and emerging digital technologies;

Calls upon States to address prevailing challenges to bridge the digital divide within and among countries, the gender, disability and age digital divides and the divide between rural and urban areas, including between developing and developed countries, and to urgently address the major impediments that developing countries face in accessing new technologies and to harness digital technologies for development, recalls the need to emphasize quality and equity of access to developing countries, to bridge digital and knowledge divides, using a multidimensional approach that includes speed, stability, affordability, language, training, capacity-building, local content and accessibility for persons with disabilities, and to promote the full enjoyment of human rights, including the right to be free from arbitrary or unlawful interference with their right to privacy, for every child, without discrimination of any kind, and urges the full respect, protection and fulfilment of human rights in providing and expanding access and bridging the digital divide;

Underlines the need for digital, media and information literacy as well as the need to address prevailing challenges to bridge digital divides, within and among countries and regions, including through international cooperation, to ensure that children, especially children in vulnerable situations, are able to connect to and access the Internet in a safe and secure way;

Encourages States to promote the rights of the child in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,⁴⁰ in accordance with their obligations under international law and in the best interests of the child;

⁴⁰Resolution 70/1.

Urges States to improve the situation of children living in poverty, in particular extreme poverty, deprived of adequate nutritious food, clean drinking water and sanitation facilities, including for menstrual hygiene health and management, with limited or no access to basic physical and mental health-care services, adequate shelter, education, participation and protection, taking into account that, while a severe lack of goods and services hurts every human being, it is particularly threatening and harmful to children, leaving them unable to enjoy their rights, to reach their full potential and to participate as full members of society, and exposed to conditions that lead to increased violence;

Also urges States to ensure that no restrictions are placed on the exercise by children of their human rights, including to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly, in the digital environment other than those that are lawful, necessary and proportionate;

Recalls every child’s right to be registered immediately after birth, to a name, to acquire a nationality and to recognition everywhere as a person before the law, as set out in the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, respectively, reminds States of their obligation to ensure the registration of the birth of all children without discrimination of any kind, including in the case of late birth registration, calls upon States to ensure that birth registration procedures are universal, accessible, simple, expeditious and effective and provided at minimal or no cost, and recognizes the importance of birth registration as a critical means of preventing statelessness;

Calls upon States to promote the use of digital identification systems that enable every child to be registered immediately after birth and to have a name and to have the right to be recognized by national authorities to facilitate access to essential services, especially for children in rural and remote areas, refugee and migrant children and those in the most vulnerable situations;

Also calls upon States to scale up scientifically accurate and age-appropriate comprehensive education, relevant to cultural contexts, that provides adolescent girls and boys and young women and men, in and out of school, consistent with their evolving capacities, and with appropriate direction and guidance from parents and legal guardians, with the best interests of the child as their basic concern, with information on sexual and reproductive health and HIV prevention, gender equality and women’s empowerment, human rights, physical, psychological and pubertal development and power in relationships between women and men, to enable them to build self-esteem and foster informed decision-making, communication and risk reduction skills and to develop respectful relationships, in full partnership with young people, parents, legal guardians, caregivers, educators and health-care providers, in order to, inter alia, enable them protect themselves from HIV infection and other risks;

Further calls upon States to create opportunities for children’s inclusive and meaningful participation in decision-making processes in line with their evolving capacities, including girls and adolescent girls, children with disabilities, children belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities, Indigenous children, and children in vulnerable situations and those who are hardest to reach, in all matters affecting them, including in relation to the digital environment, and for children to become agents of change within their communities, taking into account the importance of involving children’s organizations and child-led initiatives, by creating inclusive consultative mechanisms and ensuring that policy measures are developed on the basis of participatory, evidence-based decision-making processes that take into account the views of children and the best interests of the child;

Urges all States to respect, protect and fulfil the right of children, including children with disabilities and children in vulnerable situations, to express themselves freely and their right to be provided the opportunity to be heard in any proceeding affecting them, and to ensure that they have access to quality inclusive education and information in child-friendly and accessible formats, that their views are given due weight and that they are included in decision-making processes, in accordance with their age and maturity, in all matters affecting them, including those relating to the digital environment;

Reaffirms the right to education on the basis of equal opportunity and non-discrimination, and calls upon States to make primary education compulsory, inclusive and available free to all children, ensuring that all children have equal access to education of good quality, making secondary education generally available and accessible to all, in particular through the progressive introduction of free education, bearing in mind that special measures to ensure equal access, including affirmative action, contribute to achieving equal opportunity and combating exclusion by eliminating social, economic and gender disparities in education and ensuring school attendance, in particular for girls, children with disabilities, pregnant adolescent girls, children living in poverty, Indigenous children, children of African descent, persons belonging to ethnic or religious minorities and children in vulnerable or marginalized situations;

Acknowledges with concern the lack of readiness and vision for digital and remote learning across the globe, evidenced through the absence or shortage of appropriate infrastructure, connectivity, policies and programmes, digital learning solutions, educational content and resources and guidance and support mechanisms for schools, teachers and families, as well as the lack of digital literacy and skills among students, teachers and caregivers, and in this regard commits to address these challenges and spread the benefits of digitalization including by expanding the participation of all countries in the digitalization, in particular developing countries, among others through enhancing their digital infrastructure connectivity as well as building their capacities and access to technological innovations through stronger partnerships and improving digital literacy;

Urges States to ensure that all schools are safe and free from violence, such as bullying, including cyberbullying, sexual harassment, including peer-to-peer sexual harassment, online and offline, and that they address all forms of violence against children, with particular attention to girls and children with disabilities and in vulnerable situations;

Recognizes that children with disabilities, particularly girls, may face stigmatization, discrimination and exclusion and are disproportionately subjected to mental and physical violence and sexual abuse and therefore may be particularly exposed to online risks, including cyberbullying, and that there is a need to take steps to ensure that the digital environment, including safety information, protective strategies, services and forums relating to it, is accessible and safe, bearing in mind the importance of countering prejudice that might lead to overprotection or exclusion;

Urges States to take comprehensive, multisectoral, coordinated, effective and gender-responsive measures to prevent and eliminate all forms of violence against all children and to address structural and underlying causes and risk factors, including through enhanced prevention measures, research and strengthened coordination and monitoring and evaluation, implementing, in partnership with all relevant stakeholders, effective violence prevention and response activities in schools and communities, educating children from a young age regarding the importance of treating all people with dignity and respect, and designing educational programmes and teaching materials that support consent, non-violent behaviour, respect for boundaries and what constitutes unacceptable behaviour and how to report it, that eliminate gender stereotypes and negative social norms, build self-esteem and informed decision-making and communication skills and promote the development of respectful relationships based on gender equality, inclusion and respect for human rights;

Calls upon States to promote the provision of accessible, gender-responsive and age-appropriate information to children, including children with disabilities, on their rights, including through human rights education programmes as well as equal access to technologies that provide them with information and material from a diversity of national and international sources, especially those aimed at the promotion of their social, spiritual and moral well-being, and physical and mental health, and the protection of their rights;

Also calls upon States to accelerate efforts to eliminate all barriers to the equal enjoyment by girls of their right to education, to address gender-based discrimination, negative social norms and gender stereotypes in education systems, including in curricula, textbooks and teaching methodologies, and to fight all forms of violence, including sexual harassment and school-related sexual and gender-based violence, in and out of schools and other educational settings;

Urges States to take immediate and effective measures to secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour and to end child labour in all its forms, by 2025 at the latest;

Calls upon States to scale up programming for girls, including education and skills development training for adolescent girls; to address gender-specific barriers to the equal enjoyment by girls of their right to education and access to quality education; to ensure access to gender-specific support services, including psychological, social and sexual and reproductive health-care services, and education, including in emergencies; and to ensure that girls’ opinions are heard, and that measures are taken to enable young women and girls to successfully grow into leadership positions in public and private spheres by ensuring their full and equal access to education, technology and skills development, leadership and mentorship programmes, increased technical and financial support, and protection from violence and discrimination;

Also calls upon States to ensure that child protection, including social protection and gender-sensitive mental health services, is recognized as essential and that it continues to be provided and be accessible, affordable and available to all children at all times, including through the use of digital technologies;

Encourages States to adopt and implement sustained and inclusive child-empowering, age-appropriate, disability-inclusive and gender-responsive non-formal and formal education programmes, providing children, parents, legal guardians, caregivers, teachers and other professionals working with and for children with skills relating to digital and data literacy, to promote awareness among children of the possible adverse consequences of exposure to risks relating to content, contact, conduct and contract, including cyberaggression, trafficking, sexual exploitation and abuse and other forms of violence that occur through or are amplified by the use of technology, recognizing a child who is a victim of online harm and responding appropriately, as well as coping strategies to reduce harm and strategies to protect their personal data and those of others and to build children’s social and emotional skills and resilience in order to ensure all children’s safety and their human rights in the digital context;

Calls upon States to invest equitably in technological infrastructure in schools and other learning settings, ensuring the availability and affordability of a sufficient number of devices, high-quality and high-speed broadband and a stable source of electricity, accessibility and the timely maintenance of school technologies;

Also calls upon States to support and invest in education, including human rights education, as a long-term and lifelong process, through which everyone learns equality, non-discrimination, non-violence, tolerance, inclusion and respect for the dignity of others and the means and methods of ensuring such respect in all societies, including in digital contexts, and to engage, educate, encourage and support the promotion of positive behaviour that addresses all forms of discrimination and violence that occur through or are amplified by the use of technology;

Recognizes that information and communications technologies present new opportunities and challenges and that there is a pressing need to address the major impediments that developing countries face in engaging with and accessing new technologies, such as an appropriate enabling environment, sufficient resources, infrastructure, education, capacity, investment and connectivity, as well as issues related to technology ownership, setting standards and technology flows, and in this regard urges all stakeholders to consider ensuring appropriate financing of digital development and adequate means of implementation, including strengthened capacity-building of developing countries, particularly the least developed countries, towards a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy;

Urges States to stress the role and responsibility of online service providers in protecting children from online harm, especially child sexual exploitation and abuse;

Encourages States to urge businesses that have an impact on the enjoyment of children’s rights in relation to the digital environment to ensure that human rights are respected in the conception, design, development, deployment, evaluation and regulation of digital technologies, including artificial intelligence, and to ensure that they are subject to adequate safeguards and oversight that seek to prevent or mitigate adverse human rights impacts that are directly linked to businesses’ operations, products or services in order to promote an open, secure, stable, accessible and affordable digital technology environment for all children, and calls upon States to consider adopting legislation, regulations or policies to ensure that businesses address their responsibilities to respect children’s rights, safety and well-being;

Also encourages States to urge businesses that have an impact on the enjoyment of children’s rights in relation to the digital environment to prevent or mitigate adverse impacts on children’s rights that are directly linked to their design and operations, products or services and to establish and implement regulatory frameworks and promote industry codes and terms of services that adhere to the highest standards of ethics, privacy and safety in relation to the design, engineering, development, operation, distribution and marketing of their technological products and services and that respect, protect and fulfil the rights of the child;

Reiterates its call upon States to ensure a clear and predictable environment, including through legal and regulatory measures, which requires digital technology and other relevant industries to respect the rights of the child and which strengthens regulatory agencies’ responsibility for the development of standards for the protection of the rights of the child, with powers and resources to monitor data privacy practices, investigate violations and abuses and receive communications from individuals and organizations, and to provide appropriate remedies;

Urges States to provide children whose rights have been violated or abused with access to effective and appropriate remedial victim support, as well as reparation and guarantees of non-repetition; and calls upon States and businesses to ensure the availability and accessibility of free-of-charge, safe, confidential, responsive and child-friendly reporting mechanisms;

Calls upon States to encourage business enterprises operating in the digital environment to undertake child rights due diligence and child rights impact assessments to guide mitigating measures, including for the protection of children’s physical and mental health and the impacts of the digital environment on children, and in this regard to effectively consider issues of gender and vulnerability and to identify, prevent and mitigate any risks posed by their products and services to children, and in this regard takes note of the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: Implementing the United Nations “Protect, Respect and Remedy” Framework;⁴¹

⁴¹A/HRC/17/31, annex.

Encourages increased transparency by States and businesses to understand the impact of the use of digital technologies, including artificial intelligence, on children’s well-being and development, and to encourage support to independent monitoring of the fulfilment of the rights of the child in the digital environment;

Encourages States to build and strengthen multi-stakeholder platforms with the participation of Governments, civil society and representatives of industry, in particular the digital technology sector, in consultation with children themselves and, where appropriate, their parents or legal guardians, with a view to promoting multi-stakeholder cooperation in the elaboration and implementation of policies to protect, empower and inform children and prevent violence that occurs through or is amplified by the use of technology;

Notes the importance of promoting safe and enabling conditions for children facing multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, such as children belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities, as well as migrant children, refugee or asylum-seeking children, internally displaced children, children with disabilities, children of African descent and Indigenous children;

Urges States to prohibit the unlawful digital surveillance of children, with due regard to commercial settings and educational and care settings, to work towards enabling secure communications and the protection of individual users against arbitrary or unlawful interference with their privacy, including by developing technical solutions with any restrictions thereon complying with the obligations of States under relevant international human rights instruments;

Calls upon States to ensure that national legislation on data protection and privacy is in accordance with their international human rights obligations and allows law enforcement, social welfare and judicial authorities to conduct effective and appropriate investigations and prosecutions to combat violations and abuses of the rights of the child, and to raise awareness of the importance of activities and compliance with the law by private actors, notably those in the digital industry, to strengthen those efforts;

Urges States to take appropriate measures regarding the collection, processing and sharing of children’s personal data, addressing exploitative marketing practices aimed at children and adopting standards that identify, define and prohibit practices that manipulate or interfere with children’s rights in the digital environment, including by requiring data protection, privacy-by-design, safety-by-design and other regulatory measures to ensure that businesses do not target children using techniques designed to prioritize commercial interests over those of the child, putting in place adequate safeguards that seek to prevent or mitigate adverse human rights impacts that are directly linked to their operations, products or services, and taking measures to ensure that access to and use of essential digital services and infrastructure by children is based on the least privacy-intrusive means available for their intended purpose;

Calls upon States and private entities to ensure that children are protected against economic exploitation, including by reducing children’s exposure to marketing and commercial communication, and to ensure that the uses of automated processes of information filtering, profiling, marketing and decision-making do not supplant, manipulate or interfere with children’s ability to form and express their opinions in the digital environment;

Urges States to take measures to ensure that children are informed, in a child-friendly, easily accessible and age-appropriate way, about the collection and use of their data online, and encourages private actors in the technology sector to adhere to the highest international standards and best practices for safety, privacy and security by design, taking into account the particular needs of children;

Encourages States to make efforts towards mainstreaming children’s needs in all digital policies, and public and private investment, providing all children with equal and effective access to age-appropriate information, and information on their rights, and to high-quality online resources, including on digital skills and literacy, and protecting children from online risks and harm, as well as arbitrary or unlawful interference with their privacy on social media, as well as preventing children’s exposure to violent and sexual content, gambling, exploitation and abuse, and the promotion of or incitement to life-threatening activities;

Strongly condemns all forms of violence, harassment and abuse against children in all settings, online and offline, including physical, psychological and sexual violence, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, child abuse and exploitation, including sexual exploitation of children in the context of travel and tourism, child sexual abuse material, sexual exploitation of children such as child prostitution, cybergrooming, bullying, including cyberbullying, hostage-taking, domestic violence, trafficking in or sale of children and their organs, gang and armed violence, and harmful practices, including female genital mutilation and child, early and forced marriage, and urges States to strengthen efforts to prevent and protect children from all such violence through a comprehensive, gender-responsive, age-appropriate and disability-inclusive approach and to develop an inclusive multifaceted and systematic framework, which is integrated into national planning processes, to respond effectively to violence against children and to provide for safe and child-sensitive counselling, complaint and reporting mechanisms and safeguards for the rights of affected children;

Calls upon all States to protect the rights of the child and to ensure, for children belonging to national or ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities and migrant children, children affected by armed conflict, Indigenous children, children of African descent, internally displaced children and children with disabilities, the enjoyment of all their rights as well as access to health-care services, social services, social protection and accessible and inclusive education on an equal basis with others, and to ensure that all such children, in particular unaccompanied migrant children, internally displaced children and those who are victims of violence and exploitation, receive special protection and assistance and that the best interests of the child are a primary consideration in their policies of integration, return and family reunification;

Condemns in the strongest terms all violations and abuses committed against children in armed conflict, and in this regard urges all States and other parties to armed conflict that are engaged, in contravention of applicable international law, in the recruitment and use of children, in patterns of killing and maiming of children and/or rape and other sexual violence against children, acknowledging that sexual violence in these situations disproportionately affects girls, but that boys are also targets, in recurrent attacks on schools and/or hospitals and related personnel and in patterns of abduction of children, as well as in all other violations and abuses against children, to take time-bound and effective measures to end and prevent them and to encourage age- and gender-specific support services, including psychological, social and sexual and reproductive health-care services, and education, social protection and reintegration programmes;

Encourages States to adopt and strengthen clear and comprehensive measures, including legislative and policy measures, taking into account the best interests of the child, to prevent and protect children from bullying, including cyberbullying and the dissemination of personal sexually explicit content, and provide for safe and child-sensitive counselling and reporting procedures and safeguards for the rights of affected children;

Calls upon States to ensure the legal protection of children from violence, both online and offline, in a manner consistent with their obligations under international law, including international human rights law, and to criminalize relevant conduct related to violence against children online and offline, including but not limited to forms of sexual exploitation and abuse of children, such as child grooming, sexual extortion, the streaming of child abuse, the possession or distribution of, access to, or exchange or production of or payment for child sexual abuse material and the viewing, conducting or facilitation of children’s participation in live sexual abuses or exploitation transmitted through digital technologies, in addition to the use of digital technology in the recruitment or use of children by armed groups and in the context of child trafficking;

Also calls upon States to develop coherent and coordinated protection systems and to provide universal access to quality comprehensive social, physical and mental health, including sexual and reproductive health, and legal and counselling services for all victims and survivors, to ensure their full recovery and reintegration into society, and to strengthen social welfare systems and effective service delivery for children affected by violence, in particular in the justice, education and health sectors;

Recognizes that the right of the child to education can be severely hampered as a result of physical, psychological and sexual violence, as well as bullying, in school, outside school and on the way to school, as well as in digital environments, which compromises learning outcomes and may lead to school dropout, and therefore calls upon States to prevent and protect children, including migrant children and children in vulnerable situations, from bullying, including cyberbullying, and other online risks, such as sexual violence and online exploitation, by generating statistical information, promptly and adequately responding to such acts and providing appropriate support and counselling to children affected by and involved in bullying and cyberbullying;

Calls upon States to ensure that all those responsible for or who attempt to commit crimes against children that occur through or are amplified by the use of technology are held accountable and brought to justice in order to fight impunity, taking into account that such crimes are often multi-jurisdictional and transnational in nature;

Urges States to promote and protect the rights of the child against sexual exploitation and sexual and gender-based violence, including in digital contexts, through the adoption of relevant legislation to prevent these acts as well as combat them through the detection of child sexual abuse material and its immediate removal from the Internet;

Appreciates the role of civil society, including child- and youth-led movements, including those aimed at promoting the respect, protection and fulfilment of human rights, in supporting victims and survivors of violence that occurs through or is amplified by the use of technology, including by amplifying their voices, and in receiving reports of online harms against children;

Emphasizes that child sexual exploitation and sexual abuse is a global phenomenon that requires a coordinated and multi-stakeholder global-level response, and in this regard notes the efforts of, inter alia, the WeProtect Global Alliance;

Takes note of ongoing efforts to mainstream the rights of the child into the work of the United Nations system, and requests all relevant organs, bodies, entities, organizations and mechanisms of the United Nations system to mainstream the promotion, respect, protection and fulfilment of the rights of the child throughout their activities, in accordance with their respective mandates, as well as to ensure that their staff are trained in child rights matters, and take further steps to increase system-wide coordination and inter-agency cooperation for the promotion and protection of the rights of the child;

Expresses support for the work of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children, and recognizes the progress achieved since the establishment of the mandate in promoting the prevention and elimination of all forms of violence against children, both online and offline, in all regions and in advancing the implementation of the recommendations of the United Nations study on violence against children,⁴² including through partnerships with regional organizations, as well as advocacy through thematic consultations, field missions and thematic reports addressing emerging concerns, including on the need to protect children from exposure to violence online and ensure a safe digital environment for them;

⁴²A/61/299.

Urges all States, requests United Nations agencies, funds and programmes and invites regional organizations and civil society, including non-governmental organizations, to cooperate with the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children in promoting the further implementation of the recommendations of the United Nations study on violence against children and in supporting Member States in the context of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, encourages States to provide support to the Special Representative, including adequate voluntary financial support for the continued, effective and independent performance of her mandate, and invites organizations, including the private sector, to provide voluntary contributions for that purpose;

Expresses support for the work of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, recalls the adoption of resolution 51/77 of 12 December 1996, by which the mandate of the Special Representative was created, and the increased level of work and the progress achieved since the establishment of the mandate, welcomes the efforts by the Special Representative to increase public awareness and collect, assess and disseminate best practices and lessons learned, including the study on the evolution of the children and armed conflict mandate from 1996 to 2021, published in January 2022, the study on the gender dimensions of the six grave violations against children in armed conflict, identified by the Special Representative, published in May 2022, the guidance note on the monitoring and reporting of abduction of conflict-affected children, published in July 2022, and the follow-up study on the impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic on violations against children in situations of armed conflict, published in July 2022, and looks forward to the planned guidance note on the denial of humanitarian access, and particularly welcomes an increased engagement with States, the United Nations Children’s Fund and other United Nations agencies, funds and programmes, regional and subregional organizations and civil society;

Recognizes that development, peace and security and human rights are interlinked and mutually reinforcing and that the protection and reintegration of, and the prevention of violations and abuses against, conflict-affected children should be considered across all stages of this spectrum;

Notes with appreciation the steps taken regarding Security Council resolutions 1539 (2004) of 22 April 2004, 1612 (2005) of 26 July 2005, 1882 (2009) of 4 August 2009, 1998 (2011) of 12 July 2011, 2068 (2012) of 19 September 2012, 2225 (2015) of 18 June 2015, 2286 (2016) of 3 May 2016 and 2427 (2018) of 9 July 2018 and the efforts of the Secretary-General to implement the monitoring and reporting mechanism on children and armed conflict in accordance with those resolutions, with the participation of and in cooperation with national Governments and relevant United Nations and civil society actors, including at the country level, requests the Secretary-General to ensure that information collected and communicated by the monitoring and reporting mechanism is accurate, objective and verifiable, and in this regard encourages the work and the deployment of United Nations child protection advisers in peacekeeping operations and political and peacebuilding missions;

Decides:

To continue its consideration of the question at its eightieth session under the item entitled “Promotion and protection of the rights of children”;

To request the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its eightieth session a comprehensive report on the rights of the child containing information on the status of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and on the issues addressed in the present resolution, with a focus on early childhood development;

To request the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict to continue to submit reports to the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council on the activities undertaken in fulfilment of her mandate, including information on her field visits and on the progress achieved and the challenges remaining on the children and armed conflict agenda;

To request the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, in carrying out her mandate for the protection of children in situations of armed conflict, in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the General Assembly and the Security Council, to continue to engage proactively with relevant United Nations bodies and agencies, Member States, regional and subregional organizations and non-State armed groups, including by negotiating action plans, securing commitments, advocating for appropriate response mechanisms and ensuring attention and follow-up to the conclusions and recommendations of the Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict, and reaffirms the important role that the Special Representative can play in contributing to conflict prevention;

To request the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children to continue to submit annual reports to the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council on the activities undertaken in fulfilment of her mandate, consistent with paragraphs 58 and 59 of its resolution 62/141 of 18 December 2007, including information on her field visits and on the progress achieved and the challenges remaining on the violence against children agenda;

To request the Special Rapporteur on the sale, sexual exploitation and sexual abuse of children to continue to submit reports to the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council on the activities undertaken in fulfilment of her mandate, including information on her field visits and on the progress achieved and the challenges remaining in the prevention and elimination of all forms of sale and sexual exploitation and abuse of children, and in the protection, rehabilitation, recovery, reintegration and access to justice of children who are victims and survivors, in a gender-responsive, disability-inclusive, victim-centred, trauma-informed and child-friendly manner and with full respect for the rights of the child, including in how to advance the protection capacities of communities and families, with the best interests of the child as a primary consideration;

To invite the Chair of the Committee on the Rights of the Child to present an oral report on the work of the Committee and to engage in an interactive dialogue with the General Assembly at its seventy-ninth and eightieth sessions as a way to enhance communication between the Assembly and the Committee.

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

What other versions does this mandate have?

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

Table of contents

Who cites this mandate in the budget?