Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)

The Sustainable Development Goals and targets have been defined above all to inspire action to safeguard the needs of present and future generations. A key commitment expressed in the 2030 Agenda is that no one will be left behind and those furthest behind will be reached first.

Governments thereby commit to prioritize reaching all children everywhere by focusing on those most excluded and at risk of being denied their rights. As such, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development represents a historic opportunity to promote the realization of the rights of all children in all countries to get their best start in life, to survive and to thrive, and to live free from violence and abuse.

The realization of children’s rights is the foundation for securing a sustainable future and realizing all human rights. When children do not have equal opportunities to reach their potential, all of society suffers the consequences. When children’s rights are respected, protected and fulfilled, dividends are returned in the form of global security, sustainability and human progress. Children experience disproportionate levels of persisting global poverty, and due to their particular life-stage and phase of development suffer broad and deep consequences of growing up in poverty throughout their lives, hampering the fulfillment of all of their human rights.

Children’s rights are reaffirmed in the 2030 Agenda by setting forth a vision for a world that invests in its children and in which every child grows up free from violence and exploitation. The Agenda should serve to eradicate poverty and promote prosperity for all children, especially those in vulnerable situations and most at risk of being left behind, including girls, refugees, ethnic minorities, children without parental care, children with disabilities, and indigenous and migrant children.

In the Agenda States make key commitments to children, in particular to promoting children’s lifelong learning opportunities, to ending child labor in all its forms and to accelerating progress in reducing newborn, child and maternal mortality, and ending all such preventable deaths before 2030. Crucially, children are defined as agents of change, in recognition of their capacities to be active partners in realizing the Sustainable Development Goals.

Given that the 2030 Agenda is to be implemented in a manner consistent with international law, State obligations pertaining to the rights specified in the Convention on the Rights of the Child must be protected and promoted throughout implementation of the 2030 Agenda, as reflected in its four general principles on non-discrimination (art. 2), the best interests of the child (art. 3), their right to life, survival and development (art. 6), and their right to be heard (art. 12).

Those commitments emphasize that no targets of the Sustainable Development Goals may ever be pursued to the detriment of children’s rights.

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)

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