The General Assembly,
 
      Recalling its resolution 50/153 of 21 December 1995 and Commission on
Human Rights resolution 1996/85 of 24 April 1996,
 
      Encouraged by the widespread commitment and political will shown by the
unprecedented number of States that have become parties to the Convention on
the Rights of the Child, while noting that the goal of achieving universal
ratification by 1995 was not reached,
 
      Seriously concerned about those reservations to the Convention which are
contrary to the object and purpose of the Convention or otherwise contrary to
international treaty law, and recalling that the Vienna Declaration and
Programme of Action adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights, held at
Vienna from 14 to 25 June 1993, urges States to withdraw such reservations,
 
      Reaffirming the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, which states
that national and international mechanisms and programmes should be
strengthened for the defence and protection of children, in particular the
girl child, abandoned children, street children, economically and sexually
exploited children, including through child pornography, child prostitution or
sale of organs, children victims of diseases, including acquired
immunodeficiency syndrome, refugee and displaced children, children in
detention, children in armed conflict and children victims of famine, drought
and other emergencies, and also requires measures against female infanticide
and harmful child labour,
 
      Reaffirming also that the best interests of the child shall be a primary
consideration in all actions concerning children,
 
      Noting with appreciation the important work carried out by the United
Nations, in particular the United Nations Children's Fund, the Committee on
the Rights of the Child, the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human
Rights on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography and
the expert designated by the Secretary-General to undertake the study on the
impact of armed conflict on children,
 
      Recognizing the valuable work done by relevant intergovernmental and
non-governmental organizations for the promotion and protection of the rights
of the child,
 
      Profoundly concerned that the situation of children in many parts of the
world remains critical as a result of inadequate social and economic
conditions, poverty, natural disasters, armed conflicts, displacement,
exploitation, racism and all forms of intolerance, unemployment,
rural-to-urban migration, illiteracy, hunger, disability and drug abuse, and
convinced that urgent and effective national and international action is
called for,
 
      Recognizing that legislation per se is not enough to prevent violations
of the rights of the child, that stronger political commitment is needed and
that Governments should implement their laws and complement legislative
measures with effective action, inter alia, in the fields of law enforcement
and the administration of justice and in social, educational and public health
programmes,
 
      Recalling the recommendation made by the World Conference on Human
Rights that matters relating to human rights and the situation of children be
regularly reviewed and monitored by all relevant organs and mechanisms of the
United Nations system and by supervisory bodies of the specialized agencies in
accordance with their mandates,
 
                                         I
 
            Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child
 
      1.    Welcomes the unprecedented number of one hundred and eighty-seven
States that have ratified or acceded to the Convention on the Rights of the
Child as a universal commitment to the rights of the child;
 
      2.    Urges once again all States that have not yet done so to sign and
ratify or accede to the Convention as a matter of priority, with a view to
reaching the goal of universal adherence established by the World Summit for
Children, held in New York on 29 and 30 September 1990, and reiterated in the
Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action;
 
      3.    Reaffirms that all States have a duty to fulfil the obligations
they have undertaken under the various international instruments, and, in this
regard, emphasizes the importance of the full implementation by States parties
of the provisions of the Convention;
 
      4.    Urges States parties to the Convention which have made
reservations to review the compatibility of their reservations with article 51
of the Convention and other relevant rules of international law, with the aim
of withdrawing them;
 
      5.    Also urges States parties to the Convention to accept the
amendment to paragraph 2 of article 43 of the Convention, which would increase
the membership of the Committee on the Rights of the Child from ten to
eighteen experts;
 
      6.    Welcomes the report of the Committee on the Rights of the Child,
submitted pursuant to article 44, paragraph 5, of the Convention, and notes
with appreciation the constructive role played by the Committee in creating
awareness of the principles and provisions of the Convention and in providing
recommendations to States parties on its implementation;
 
      7.    Calls upon States parties to the Convention to ensure that the
education of the child shall be carried out in accordance with article 29 of
the Convention and that the education be directed, inter alia, to the
development of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, for the
Charter of the United Nations and for different cultures and to the
preparation of the child for responsible life in a free society, in the spirit
of understanding, peace, tolerance, equality of the sexes and friendship among
peoples, ethnic, national and religious groups and persons of indigenous
origin;
 
      8.    Also calls upon States parties to the Convention, in accordance
with their obligation under article 42 of the Convention, to make the
principles and provisions of the Convention widely known to adults and
children alike;
 
      9.    Stresses that the implementation of the Convention contributes to
the achievement of the goals of the World Summit for Children as emphasized in
the report of the Secretary-General on the progress at mid-decade on
implementation of General Assembly resolution 45/217 of 21 December 1990 on
the World Summit for Children;
 
                                        II
 
                 Protection of children affected by armed conflict
 
      10.   Invites all States to accede to relevant international human
rights and humanitarian instruments, and urges them to implement those to
which they are parties;
 
      11.   Urges States and other parties to armed conflict to respect
international humanitarian law;
 
      12.   Calls upon States fully to respect the provisions contained in the
Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 and the Additional Protocols thereto of
1977, as well as those contained in the Convention on the Rights of the Child,
which accord children affected by armed conflict special protection and
treatment;
 
      13.   Welcomes the report of the expert of the Secretary-General on the
impact of armed conflict on children, and takes note with appreciation of the
recommendations included therein which address the prevention of the
involvement of children in armed conflict, the reinforcement of preventive
measures, the relevance and adequacy of existing standards, the measures
required to improve the protection of children affected by armed conflict and
the actions needed to promote the physical and psychological recovery and
social reintegration of children affected by armed conflict;
 
      14.   Notes with interest the participatory process through which the
report of the expert was prepared in close collaboration with Member States
and United Nations bodies and organizations, as well as other relevant
intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations;
 
      15.   Requests the Secretary-General to ensure that the report of the
expert is disseminated as widely as possible among Member States and
intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, as well as within the
United Nations system;
 
      16.   Takes note with appreciation of the report of the Committee on the
Rights of the Child and the recommendations contained therein concerning the
situation of children affected by armed conflict;
 
      17.   Welcomes resolution CM/Res.1659 (LXIV) on the plight of African
children in situations of armed conflict adopted by the Council of Ministers
of the Organization of African Unity at its sixty-fourth ordinary session,
held at Yaounde from 1 to 5 July 1996;
 
      18.   Recommends that States parties to the Convention promote wide
dissemination and awareness of relevant standards on the rights of the child
and develop education and training activities on the rights of the child as a
measure to ensure the protection of children affected by armed conflict;
 
      19.   Calls upon States and United Nations bodies and organizations to
treat children in situations of armed conflict as a priority concern in human
rights, humanitarian and development activities, including in field operations
and country programmes, to enhance coordination and cooperation throughout the
United Nations system and to ensure effective protection for children affected
by armed conflict;
 
      20.   Calls upon the executive boards of relevant United Nations funds
and programmes, the specialized agencies and other competent bodies to explore
ways and means by which they can contribute more effectively to the protection
of children in armed conflict;
 
      21.   Recommends that the humanitarian concerns relating to children
affected by armed conflict and their protection be fully reflected in United
Nations field operations, which, inter alia, promote peace, prevent and
resolve conflicts and implement peace agreements;
 
      22.   Underlines the importance of including measures to ensure respect
for the rights of the child, including in the areas of health and nutrition,
education, physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration,
within emergency and other humanitarian assistance policies and programmes;
 
      23.   Stresses the need for Governments and other parties to armed
conflict to take measures, including the establishment, for example, of "days
of tranquillity" and "corridors of peace", to ensure humanitarian access, the
delivery of humanitarian relief and the provision of services, such as
education and health, including immunization of children affected by armed
conflict;
 
      24.   Supports the work of the open-ended inter-sessional working group
of the Commission on Human Rights on the elaboration of a draft optional
protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child related to the
involvement of children in armed conflict, and expresses the hope that it will
make further progress prior to the fifty-third session of the Commission with
a view to finalizing this work;
 
      25.   Urges States and all other parties to armed conflict to adopt all
necessary measures to end the use of children as soldiers and to ensure their
demobilization and reintegration into society, including through adequate
education and training, in a manner that fosters their self-respect and
dignity, and invites the international community to assist in this endeavour;
 
      26.   Calls upon all States and relevant United Nations bodies,
including the Voluntary Trust Fund for Assistance in Mine Clearance, to
contribute on an ongoing basis to international mine-clearance efforts, and
urges States to take further action to promote gender and age-appropriate
mine-awareness programmes and child- centred rehabilitation, thereby reducing
the number and the plight of child victims;
 
      27.   Welcomes international efforts aimed at restricting and
prohibiting the indiscriminate use of anti-personnel mines;
 
      28.   Reaffirms that rape in the conduct of armed conflict constitutes a
war crime and that under certain circumstances it constitutes a crime against
humanity and an act of genocide as defined in the Convention on the Prevention
and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, and calls upon all States to take all
measures required for the protection of women and children from all acts of
gender-based violence, including rape, sexual exploitation and forced
pregnancy, and to strengthen mechanisms to investigate and punish all those
responsible and bring the perpetrators to justice;
 
      29.   Stresses the need for all humanitarian responses in conflict
situations to emphasize the special reproductive health needs of women and
girls, including those that arise from pregnancy as a result of rape, sexual
mutilation, childbirth at an early age or infection with sexually transmitted
diseases, as well as human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency
syndrome, and their access to family planning services;
 
      30.   Urgently requests that appropriate measures be taken by Member
States and United Nations agencies, within the scope of their respective
mandates, to ensure humanitarian access to children affected by armed
conflict, to facilitate the extension of humanitarian assistance, including
education, and to ensure the physical and psychological recovery and
reintegration into society of child soldiers, victims of landmines and victims
of gender-based violence;
 
      31.   Recommends that whenever sanctions are imposed their impact on
children be assessed and monitored and that humanitarian exemptions be
child-focused and formulated with clear application guidelines;
 
      32.   Recalls the importance of preventive measures such as early
warning systems, preventive diplomacy and education for peace to prevent
conflicts and their negative impact on the enjoyment of the rights of the
child, and urges Governments and the international community to promote
sustainable human development;
 
      33.   Requests the Secretary-General, in cooperation with Member States,
international organizations and relevant non-governmental organizations, to
consider modalities for organizing regional training programmes for members of
the armed forces relating to the protection of children and women during armed
conflict;
 
      34.   Invites Governments to integrate into their military programmes,
including those for peacekeeping personnel, instruction on their
responsibilities towards civilian communities and in particular towards women
and children;
 
      35.   Recommends that the Secretary-General appoint for a period of
three years a Special Representative on the impact of armed conflict on
children and ensure that the necessary support is made available to the
Special Representative for the effective performance of his/her mandate,
encourages the United Nations Children's Fund, the Office of the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the office of the United Nations
High Commissioner for Human Rights/Centre for Human Rights to provide support
to the Special Representative, and calls upon States and institutions
concerned to provide voluntary contributions for that purpose;
 
      36.   Recommends that the Special Representative:
 
      (a)   Assess progress achieved, steps taken and difficulties encountered
in strengthening the protection of children in situations of armed conflict;
 
      (b)   Raise awareness and promote the collection of information about
the plight of children affected by armed conflict and encourage the
development of networking;
 
      (c)   Work closely with the Committee on the Rights of the Child,
relevant United Nations bodies, the specialized agencies and other competent
bodies, as well as non-governmental organizations;
 
      (d)   Foster international cooperation to ensure respect for children's
rights in these situations and contribute to the coordination of efforts by
Governments, relevant United Nations bodies, notably the office of the United
Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights/Centre for Human Rights, the Office
of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations
Children's Fund, the specialized agencies and the Committee on the Rights of
the Child, relevant special rapporteurs and working groups, as well as United
Nations field operations, regional and subregional organizations, other
competent bodies and non-governmental organizations;
 
      37.   Requests the Special Representative to submit to the General
Assembly and the Commission on Human Rights an annual report containing
relevant information on the situation of children affected by armed conflict,
bearing in mind existing mandates and reports of relevant bodies;
 
      38.   Requests Governments, the specialized agencies, relevant United
Nations organs and regional, intergovernmental and non-governmental
organizations, as well as the Committee on the Rights of the Child, other
relevant human rights treaty bodies and human rights mechanisms, to cooperate
with the Special Representative and to provide information on the measures
adopted to ensure and respect the rights of children affected by armed
conflict;
 
      39.   Calls upon Member States and relevant United Nations bodies and
non-governmental organizations to consider how the impact of armed conflict on
children can best be integrated into events designed to commemorate the tenth
anniversary of the World Summit for Children and the entry into force of the
Convention;
 
                                        III
 
                     Refugee and internally displaced children
 
      40.   Urges Governments to pay particular attention to the situation of
refugee and internally displaced children by continuing to design and improve
the implementation of policies for their care and well-being with the
necessary international cooperation, in particular that of the Office of the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the United Nations
Children's Fund;
 
      41.   Calls upon States and United Nations bodies, in recognizing the
particular vulnerability of refugee and internally displaced children, to
protect both their safety and their developmental needs, including health,
education and psychosocial rehabilitation;
 
      42.   Calls upon States and United Nations bodies and other
organizations to ensure the early identification and registration of
unaccompanied refugee and internally displaced children and to give priority
to programmes for family tracing and reunification;
 
      43.   Calls for the continual monitoring of the care arrangements of
unaccompanied refugee and internally displaced children;
 
      44.   Calls upon States and other parties to armed conflict to recognize
the particular vulnerability of refugee and internally displaced children to
recruitment into the armed forces and to sexual violence, exploitation and
abuse and to enhance protection and assistance mechanisms;
 
      45.   Calls upon the United Nations Children's Fund and other relevant
United Nations bodies and agencies and governmental and non-governmental
organizations to continue to adopt all necessary measures to ensure the
survival, assistance and protection of internally displaced children;
 
      46.   Stresses the special vulnerability of households headed by
children, and calls upon Governments and United Nations bodies to give urgent
attention to their situation and to develop policy and programme guidelines to
ensure their protection and care, in the best interests of the child;
 
      47.   Also stresses that women and youth be fully involved in the
design, delivery, monitoring and implementation of measures to protect them
from sexual violence and from the recruitment of children into the armed
forces;
 
                                        IV
 
      Prevention and eradication of the sale of children and of their sexual
      exploitation, including child prostitution and child pornography
 
      48.   Welcomes the interim report of the Special Rapporteur of the
Commission on Human Rights on the sale of children, child prostitution and
child pornography;
 
      49.   Expresses its support for the work of the Special Rapporteur
appointed by the Commission on Human Rights to examine, all over the world,
the question of the sale of children, child prostitution and child
pornography;
 
      50.   Requests the Secretary-General to provide the Special Rapporteur
with all necessary human and financial assistance to make the full discharge
of the mandate possible and to enable her to submit an interim report to the
General Assembly at its fifty-second session and a report to the Commission on
Human Rights at its fifty-third session;
 
      51.   Supports the work of the open-ended inter-sessional working group
of the Commission on Human Rights on the elaboration of a draft optional
protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child related to the sale of
children, child prostitution and child pornography, and expresses the hope
that it will make further progress prior to the fifty-third session of the
Commission with a view to finalizing this work;
 
      52.   Calls upon all States parties to fulfil their obligation under
article 34 of the Convention, and also calls upon all States to support
efforts in the context of the United Nations system aimed at adopting
effective national, bilateral and multilateral measures for the prevention and
eradication of the sale of children and of their sexual exploitation,
including child prostitution and child pornography, in particular by
criminalizing the sexual exploitation of children;
 
      53.   Welcomes the convening of the World Congress against Commercial
Sexual Exploitation of Children, held at Stockholm from 27 to 31 August 1996,
and expresses its appreciation to the Government of Sweden for organizing it,
in cooperation with the United Nations Children's Fund, End Child Prostitution
in Asian Tourism and the Non-Governmental Organizations Group for the
Convention on the Rights of the Child;
 
      54.   Welcomes with satisfaction the adoption and dissemination of the
Declaration and Agenda for Action of the World Congress against Commercial
Sexual Exploitation of Children, which constitutes an important contribution
to the global efforts aimed at the eradication of such practices;
 
      55.   Requests all States to implement on an urgent basis measures to
protect children from all forms of sexual exploitation, including measures in
line with those outlined in the Declaration and Agenda for Action;
 
      56.   Calls upon States to criminalize the commercial sexual
exploitation of children and the other forms of sexual exploitation of
children and to condemn and penalize all those offenders involved, whether
local or foreign, while ensuring that children victims of this practice are
not penalized;
 
      57.   Also calls upon States to review and revise, where appropriate,
laws, policies, programmes and practices to eliminate the commercial sexual
exploitation of children;
 
      58.   Further calls upon States to enforce relevant laws, policies and
programmes to protect children from sexual exploitation, in particular by
penalizing all those offenders involved, and to strengthen communication and
cooperation between law enforcement authorities;
 
      59.   Stresses the need to combat the existence of a market that
encourages such criminal practices against children;
 
      60.   Urges States, in cases of sex tourism, to develop or strengthen
and to implement laws to criminalize the acts of nationals of the countries of
origin when committed against children in the countries of destination, to
ensure that a person who exploits a child for sexual abuse purposes in another
country is prosecuted by competent national authorities, either in the country
of origin or in the country of destination, to strengthen laws and law
enforcement, including confiscation and seizure of assets and profits and
other sanctions, against those who commit sexual crimes against children in
countries of destination and to share relevant data;
 
      61.   Requests States to step up cooperation and concerted action by all
relevant law enforcement authorities and institutions with a view to
dismantling national, regional and international networks in trafficking in
children;
 
      62.   Invites States to allocate resources to provide comprehensive
programmes designed to heal and to rehabilitate into society child victims of
trafficking and sexual exploitation, including through job training, legal
assistance and confidential health care, and to take all appropriate measures
to promote their physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration;
 
      63.   Stresses the need to strengthen partnerships between Governments,
international organizations and all sectors of civil society, in particular
non-governmental organizations, in order to achieve these objectives;
 
                                         V
 
                    Elimination of exploitation of child labour
 
      64.   Encourages Member States that have not yet done so to ratify and
implement the conventions of the International Labour Organization relating to
the elimination of exploitation of child labour, in particular those
concerning the minimum age for employment, the abolition of forced labour and
the prohibition of particularly hazardous work for children;
 
      65.   Calls upon Governments to take legislative, administrative, social
and educational measures to ensure the protection of children from economic
exploitation, in particular protection from performing any work that is likely
to be hazardous or to interfere with the child's education or be harmful to
the child's health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social
development;
 
      66.   Urges Governments to take all necessary measures, as a matter of
priority, to eliminate all extreme forms of child labour, such as forced
labour, bonded labour and other forms of slavery;
 
      67.   Encourages, in particular, Governments to take the necessary
legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to provide for a
minimum age or minimum ages for admission to employment, appropriate
regulations of the hours and conditions of employment and appropriate
penalties or other sanctions to ensure the effective enforcement of these
measures;
 
      68.   Invites Governments, in accordance with the commitments made at
the World Summit for Social Development held at Copenhagen from 6 to 12 March
1995, to set specific target dates for eliminating all forms of child labour
which are contrary to accepted international standards, to ensure the full
enforcement of relevant existing laws and, where appropriate, to enact the
legislation necessary to implement obligations under the Convention on the
Rights of the Child and International Labour Organization standards ensuring
the protection of working children;
 
      69.   Encourages Member States to strengthen international cooperation,
including through the United Nations programme of advisory services in the
field of human rights, the International Programme on the Elimination of Child
Labour of the International Labour Organization and the activities of the
United Nations Children's Fund, as a means of assisting Governments in
preventing or combating violations of the rights of the child, including the
exploitation of child labour;
 
      70.   Recognizes the measures taken by Governments to eliminate the
exploitation of child labour, and calls upon relevant United Nations bodies
and specialized agencies, in particular the United Nations Children's Fund and
the International Labour Organization, to support national efforts in this
regard;
 
      71.   Requests that measures be taken by Governments, at the national
and international levels, within the framework of multisectoral approaches, to
end the exploitation of child labour in line with the commitments undertaken
at the World Summit for Social Development and at the Fourth World Conference
on Women, held at Beijing from 4 to 15 September 1995, and taking into account
the results of other relevant United Nations conferences;
 
      72.   Calls upon Governments to translate into concrete action their
commitment to the progressive and effective elimination of child labour and to
implement, inter alia, national action plans and the International Labour
Organization resolution on the elimination of child labour, adopted on 18 June
1996 by the International Labour Conference at its eighty-third session at
Geneva, as well as other relevant resolutions on the subject adopted by the
General Assembly and the Commission on Human Rights;
 
      73.   Requests the Secretary-General, when reporting on the
implementation of the present resolution, to cooperate closely and at an early
stage with relevant actors and United Nations organizations and bodies, in
particular the International Labour Organization and the United Nations
Children's Fund, in order to provide information on initiatives aimed at
eliminating exploitation of child labour and to recommend ways and means of
improving cooperation at the national and international levels in this field;
 
                                        VI
 
                           The plight of street children
 
      74.   Expresses grave concern at the continued growth in the number of
incidents worldwide and at reports of children living or working on the
streets being involved in and affected by serious crime, drug abuse, violence
and prostitution;
 
      75.   Urges Governments to continue actively to seek comprehensive
solutions to tackle the problems of children living or working on the streets,
to take measures to ensure their reintegration into society and to provide,
inter alia, adequate nutrition, shelter, health care and education, taking
into account the fact that such children are particularly vulnerable to all
forms of abuse, exploitation and neglect;
 
      76.   Strongly urges all Governments to guarantee the respect for all
human rights and fundamental freedoms, particularly the right to life, and to
take urgent measures to prevent the killing of street children and to combat
torture and violence against them, and to ensure that legal and juridical
processes respect children's rights in order to protect them against the
arbitrary deprivation of liberty, maltreatment or abuse;
 
      77.   Emphasizes that strict compliance with the provisions of the
Convention on the Rights of the Child and other relevant human rights
instruments constitutes a significant step towards solving the problems of
children living or working on the streets, including problems of exploitation,
abuse and abandonment of children, and recommends that the Committee on the
Rights of the Child and other relevant treaty monitoring bodies give attention
to this growing problem when examining reports of States parties;
 
      78.   Calls upon the international community to support, through
effective international cooperation, the efforts of States to improve the
situation of children in need of special protection measures, including child
well-being in urban settlements, in accordance with the Habitat Agenda adopted
by the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II), held at
Istanbul, Turkey, from 3 to 14 June 1996, and encourages States parties to the
Convention on the Rights of the Child, in preparing their reports to the
Committee on the Rights of the Child, to bear this problem in mind and to
consider requesting technical advice and assistance for initiatives aimed at
improving the situation of street children, in accordance with article 45 of
the Convention;
 
                                        VII
 
      79.   Invites Governments, United Nations bodies and organizations,
including the United Nations Children's Fund and the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, and relevant mechanisms of
the Commission on Human Rights and intergovernmental and non-governmental
organizations to cooperate with one another to ensure greater awareness and
more effective action to solve the problem of children living in exceptionally
difficult conditions by, among other measures, initiating and supporting
development projects that can have a positive impact on the situation of those
children;
 
      80.   Requests the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights
on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography to submit an
interim report to the General Assembly at its fifty-second session;
 
      81.   Requests the Secretary-General to submit a report on the rights of
the child to the General Assembly at its fifty-second session, containing
information on the status of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the
problems of exploitation of child labour, its causes and consequences, in
accordance with paragraph 73 above;
 
      82.   Decides to continue its consideration of this question at its
fifty-second session under the item entitled "Promotion and protection of the
rights of children".