Many different public health concerns exist during armed conflict situations especially for children and youth, including chronic malnutrition resulting in severe stunted growth, acute maltnutrition, undernutrition leading to high rates of child mortality, underweight with newborn babies being born weighing under 2.5 kilos, high maternal mortality rates, diarrhoeal diseases, lack of access to drinkable water, lack of food security, easily preventable diseases such as measles, HIV/AIDS and other sexual transmitted diseases, sexual violence and prostitution, violence within families, and psychological and emotional problems. Further, children and youth with disabilities also in particular experience additional challenges, including discrimination.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in its Article 25 stipulates that “everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family,” and that in particular “motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance”. Further the International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) provides that everybody including children and adolescents with the right to health, that is to “the highest standard of physical and mental health” (Article 12). Specifically for children the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC, Article 24) provides the right of the child to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health, and this includes for children in armed conflicts. The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, guarantees the right of health to children in Article 14: “Every child shall have the right to enjoy the best attainable state of physical, mental and spiritual health”, which needs to be read taking into account that the Preamble to the Charter notes “with concern that the situation of most African children, remains critical due to the unique factors of their socio-economic, cultural, traditional and developmental circumstances, natural disasters, armed conflicts, exploitation and hunger, and on account of the child’s physical and mental immaturity he/she needs special safeguards and care”. Further the African Charter a child according to the Charter “means every human being below the age of 18 years” (Article 2) and this includes children in armed conflict.  Further the “Protocol of San Salvador” (Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights in the Area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights) very clearly states that “Everyone shall have the right to health, understood to mean the enjoyment of the highest level of physical, mental and social well-being” (Article 10). Further the Protocol states with regards to the Rights of Children in its Article 16 that “Every child, whatever his parentage, has the right to the protection that his status as a minor requires from his family, society and the state”, and “every child” also needs to include children in armed conflict. Thus even as the social and legal protection of children and youth in most conflict countries are very weak before, during and after conflict, as here shown there is still a very strong legal human rights foundation for the right of health and health care for children and youth who experience armed conflict or other emergencies, also with the obvious difficulties and challenges that exist to provide for this right under such circumstances.

It is important to note that in 2000 the U.N. Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, while discussing in General Comment No. 14 the right to health according to Article 12 of the ICESCR, also stipulated that this right needs today to be interpreted more widely, also taking “into account such socially-related concerns as violence and armed conflict” (para. 10). Further the Committee interpreted article Article 12 of ICESCR to be “an inclusive right extending not only to timely and appropriate health care but also the underlying determinants of health, such as access to safe and potable water and adequate sanitation, an adequate supply of safe food, nutrition and housing, healthy occupational and environmental conditions, and access to health-related education and information, including on sexual and reproductive health. A further important aspect is the participation of the population in all health-related decision-making at the community, national and international levels” (para. 11).

With regards to children and adolescents the Committee in General Comment No. 14 remarked that “a primary consideration” should be CRC’s principle of the best interest of the child in all policy and programming that a government would establish in order to guarantee children’s and adolescent’s right to health (para. 24). Further the Committee in General Comment No. 14 noted with regards to the right to health of adolescents: “States parties should provide a safe and supportive environment for adolescents, that ensures the opportunity to participate in decisions affecting their health, to build life-skills, to acquire information, to receive counseling and to negotiate the health-behaviour choices they make. The realization of the right to health of adolescents is dependent on the development of youth-friendly health care, which respects confidentiality and privacy and includes appropriate sexual and reproductive health services” (para. 23). Again, as noted above all of these provisions of the ICESR need to be interpreted to also include the rights of children and youth in violent and armed conflict situations.

LINKS & REFERENCES

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948): http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966), http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CESCR.aspx

United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights:    http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/CESCR/Pages/CESCRIndex.aspx

on General Comments: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cescr/comments.htm

United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC 1989): http://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx

African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (1990): http://acerwc.org/the-african-charter-on-the-rights-and-welfare-of-the-child-acrwc/

“Protocol of San Salvador”, Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights in the Area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1988): http://www.oas.org/juridico/english/treaties/a-52.html

Link to: United Nations Enable: http://www.un.org/disabilities/

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006) and the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006): http://www.un.org/disabilities/documents/convention/convoptprot-e.pdf

Inter-Agency Working Group: http://www.iawg.net/annual-meeting-2013/WomenDeliver

Harvard School of Public Health and Executive and Continuing Professional Education, https://ecpe.sph.harvard.edu

Attended “Intensive Course on Health and Human Rights: Concepts, Implementation and Impact“, at Harvard School of Public Health, conducted by the Center for Continuing Professional Education in collaboration with François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, Boston, USA, June 11-13, 2012.

Refugee Place International USA/Liberia, www.refugeplaceinternational.org