GlobalChild Platform

1. States Parties recognize the right of every child to a standard of living adequate for the child’s physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development.
2. The parent(s) or others responsible for the child have the primary responsibility to secure, within their abilities and financial capacities, the conditions of living necessary for the child’s development.
3. States Parties, in accordance with national conditions and within their means, shall take appropriate measures to assist parents and others responsible for the child to implement this right and shall in case of need provide material assistance and support programmes, particularly with regard to nutrition, clothing and housing.
4. States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to secure the recovery of maintenance for the child from the parents or other persons having financial responsibility for the child, both within the State Party and from abroad. In particular, where the person having financial responsibility for the child lives in a State different from that of the child, States Parties shall promote the accession to international agreements or the conclusion of such agreements, as well as the making of other appropriate arrangements.

-UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

The core attributes of Article 27 are:

• Securing adequate standard of living for each child’s holistic development
• Obligation to take measures to assist parents and other caretakers
• Recovery of maintenance for the child

Each of these attributes can be measured in terms of structural or process implementation or in terms of outcomes achieved through implementation as outlined in the table below. Some indicators, for instance the structural ones, may be common to all attributes. Others are common to two or more attributes, while some indicators may be relevant to one attribute only. An attempt has been made to balance the use of objective and subjective data indicators as well as qualitative and quantitative ones.

These are some ideas that children from around the world shared with us during the Global Child Rights Dialogue (GCRD) project:

1. Goal 1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere.
   • Target 1.1 By 2030, eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere, currently measured as people living on less than $1.25 a day.
   • Target 1.2 By 2030, reduce at least by half the proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions.
     • SDG indicator 1.2.2 Proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions.
   • Target 1.3 Implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including floors, and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable.
     • SDG indicator 1.3.1 Proportion of population covered by social protection floors/systems, by sex, distinguishing children, unemployed persons, older persons, persons with disabilities, pregnant women, newborns, work-injury victims and the poor and the vulnerable.
2. Goal 2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.
   • Target 2.1 By 2030, end hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round.
   • Target 2.2 By 2030, end all forms of malnutrition, including achieving, by 2025, the internationally agreed targets on stunting and wasting in children under 5 years of age, and address the nutritional needs of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women and older persons.
     • SDG indicator 2.2.2 Prevalence of malnutrition (weight for height >+2 or <-2 standard deviation from the median of the WHO Child Growth Standards) among children under 5 years of age, by type (wasting and overweight)
3. Goal 4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
   • Target 4.2 By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education so that they are ready for primary education.
     • SDG indicator 4.2.1 Proportion of children under 5 years of age who are developmentally on track in health, learning and psychosocial well-being, by sex.
4. Goal 11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.
   • Target 11.1 By 2030, ensure access for all to adequate, safe and affordable housing and basic services and upgrade slums.
     • SDG indicator 11.1.1 Proportion of urban population living in slums, informal settlements or inadequate housing.

• Court case statistics
• Household surveys
• Human rights violations reports of CSOs 
• National vital registration systems
• Primary research by National Human Rights Institutions for Children
• UNICEF MICS

1. Eide, A. (2006). Article 27: The right to an adequate standard of living. In A. Alen, J. Vande Lanotte, E. Verhellen, F. Ang, E. Berghmans, & M. Verheyde (Eds.), A Commentary on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1sted., pp.1-9). Leiden, The Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.
2. Andrews, A. B., & Kaufman, N. H. (Eds.) (1999). Implementing the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child: A standard of living adequate for development, (p. 5). Westport, United States of America: Praeger.

• Habitat for Humanity. (n.d.). Habitat for humanity. Retrieved from https://www.habitat.org/
• United Nations General Assembly. (2015). Sustainable Development Goals. Retrieved from https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/?menu=1300
• United Nations Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights. (n.d.). The Universal Human Rights Index (UHRI). Retrieved from https://uhri.ohchr.org/en
• United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). (2007). Implementation Handbook for the Convention on the Rights of the Child (Fully Revised 3rd Ed.). Geneva, Switzerland: UNICEF.

Adequate
Everyone has a human right to an adequate standard of living for her/himself and her/his family, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions. Governments must take appropriate steps to ensure the realization of this right, recognizing to this effect the essential importance of international co-operation based on free consent.

Poverty
“Frequently, poverty is defined in either relative or absolute terms. Absolute poverty measures poverty in relation to the amount of money necessary to meet basic needs such as food, clothing, and shelter. The concept of absolute poverty is not concerned with broader quality of life issues or with the overall level of inequality in society. The concept therefore fails to recognise that individuals have important social and cultural needs. This, and similar criticisms, led to the development of the concept of relative poverty. Relative poverty defines poverty in relation to the economic status of other members of the society: people are poor if they fall below prevailing standards of living in a given societal context. An important criticism of both concepts is that they are largely concerned with income and consumption” (UNESCO, n.d.).

Social protection
“A wide range of activities undertaken by societies to alleviate hardship and respond to the risks that poor and vulnerable people face and to provide minimum standards of well being. This includes services and financial transfers” (Save the Children, 2007).

Social protection floors/systems
“Social protection floors are nationally defined sets of basic social security guarantees that should ensure, as a minimum that, over the life cycle, all in need have access to essential health care and to basic income security which together secure effective access to goods and services defined as necessary at the national level” (International Labour Organization, n.d.).