At the end of each year, Human Rights Watch likes to take stock of human rights progress for children around the globe. From strengthening children’s access to education to better protecting kids during wartime, here are some of our favorite examples from 2024.
- Tajikistan and Laos banned all corporal punishment of children, joining 65 other countries with such bans. Five countries—Burundi, the Czech Republic, Kyrgyzstan, Sri Lanka, and Uganda—pledged to enact legislation prohibiting all corporal punishment.
- Australia approved the establishment of a Children’s Online Privacy Code, the country’s first data protection law for children. Brazil banned the company Meta from using its child users’ personal data to train the company’s artificial intelligence (AI), citing risks of exploitation and harm to children.
- Mauritius began to provide three years of free preprimary education, and expanded its universal child benefit, crucial for reducing child poverty and increasing school enrollment.
- A new law took effect in Japan designed to move thousands of children from childcare institutions to family-based care.
- Gambia’s parliament rejected a move to overturn the country’s 2015 ban on female genital mutilation.
- Sierra Leone adopted a new law banning child marriage. In the United States, the states of New Hampshire, Virginia, and Washington prohibited all child marriage.
- The Syrian National Army, a non-state armed group, signed an action plan with the United Nations to end the killing and maiming and recruitment and use of children.
- Rwanda endorsed the Safe Schools Declaration, bringing the number of endorsing countries to 120. North Macedonia, Montenegro, and Kosovo endorsed the EWIPA Political Declaration to protect civilians from the use of explosive weapons in populated areas, the leading cause of child casualties in armed conflict.
- The UN Human Rights Council decided to consider a new international treaty to explicitly recognize every child’s right to early childhood education, and guarantee free public preprimary and secondary education for every child. Governments also agreed on a historic provision: For the first time, children will participate in the development of this new international law.
- The Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled in favor of 57 children and their families in a case against Peru, finding that the government violated their right to a healthy environment by allowing toxic pollutants. The court ordered the government to provide free health care for victims, pay compensation for serious health harms, and clean up contaminated areas.
Children’s rights are still under threat around the world, but these successes show that genuine progress can be made.
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