OFFICE OF THE HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR
HUMAN RIGHTS
Rights of the child
Commission on Human Rights resolution 2001/75
The Commission on Human Rights,
Bearing in mind the Convention on the Rights of the Child, emphasizing that its provisions and other
relevant human rights instruments must constitute the standard in the promotion and protection of the rights of
the child, and reaffirming that the best interests of the child shall be the primary consideration in all actions
concerning children,
Welcoming the developments in recent years in international legal standards, especially the adoption of
the Optional Protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed
conflict and on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, the 1999 Convention concerning
the prohibition and immediate action for the elimination of the worst forms of child labour (No. 182) of the
International Labour Organization, and the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons,
Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational
Organized Crime, acknowledging the historic significance of the establishment of the Rome Statute of the
International Criminal Court (A/CONF.183/9), and noting with interest the entry into force of the Optional
Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women,
Reaffirming the consensus reached in the relevant resolutions of the fifty-sixth session of the
Commission and the fifty-fifth session of the General Assembly, as well as in all previous resolutions on this
subject,
Reaffirming also the fundamental principle set forth in the Vienna Declaration and Programme of
Action adopted in June 1993 by the World Conference on Human Rights (A/CONF.157/23) and in the Beijing
Declaration and Platform for Action, adopted in September 1995 by the Fourth World Conference on Women
(A/CONF.177/20, chap. I) that the human rights of women and girls are an inalienable, integral and indivisible
part of universal human rights, and underlining the need for further mainstreaming the rights of the child as well
as a gender perspective in all policies and programmes relating to children,
Reaffirming further the World Declaration on the Survival, Protection and Development of Children
and the Plan of Action for the Implementation of the World Declaration for the Survival, Protection and
Development of the Child in the 1990s adopted in September 1990 by the World Summit for Children (A/45/625,
annex) and the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, which, inter alia, state that national and
international mechanisms and programmes for the safeguard and protection of children, in particular those in
especially difficult circumstances, should be strengthened, including through effective measures to combat
exploitation and abuse of children, female infanticide, harmful child labour and the immediate elimination of its
worst forms, sale of children and organs, child prostitution and child pornography, as well as other forms of
sexual abuse, and which reaffirm that all human rights and fundamental freedoms are universal,
Welcoming the role of the Committee on the Rights of the Child in examining the progress made by
States parties in implementing the obligations undertaken in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and in
providing recommendations to States parties on its implementation and, in cooperation with the Office of the
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, in enhancing awareness of the principles and provisions
of the Convention,
Profoundly concerned that the situation of children in many parts of the world remains critical as a
result of the persistence of poverty, inadequate social and economic conditions in an increasingly globalized
world economy, pandemics, in particular the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired
immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), natural disasters, armed conflicts, displacement, exploitation, illiteracy,
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