Children’s human rights in underdeveloped country: A study in Ethiopian perspective

Abstract

Children have human rights like any human being. In addition to the general human rights they also have special
rights because of their status of mental and psychical development due to age. According to the 1989 convention on
the rights of the child, ‘in all actions concerning children whether undertaken by public or private social welfare
institutions, courts of law, administrative institutions or legislative bodies, the best interest of the child shall be a
primary consideration.’ Both parents and states party to the convention are responsible for the upbringing and
development of the child according to the con-vention stated above. The upbringing and development requires
hygiene, health care, access to edu-cation, environmental sanitation, preservation of accident and others. The
convention recognizes to make primary education compulsory and available free to all. It is not the only CRC but ILO
too, which give priority with regards to the protection of child right. It is the state obligation to take appropriate
measures for the same. But it is panic on the part of the state when it denies or escape in fulfilling its obligation
because of the insufficient resources with it. And no doubt one can observe the same prac-tice in the
underdevelopment countries. Child exploitation, either economical or sexual, child abuse, ne-glect and trafficking are
wildly observed in these countries. This might be related to several factors, like poverty, insufficient efforts and
commitment from concerned bodies, law rates of reporting child abuse, cultural norms or values and harm full
traditional practices or others. Any way these child exploration abuse and neglect highly affect the up bringing and
development of the child including education. The same is with one of the underdeveloped country of Africa that is,
Ethiopia.