In 1989, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was ratified by Jamaica in 1991 and included in the Child Care and Protection Act (Cohen, 2017). Every individual under the age of 18 years is considered a child. As such, there are four fundamental rights that a child should have. They are the right to survival, to develop to the fullest, to receive protection from harmful influences, and to participate in family and communal activities. In Jamaica, an emphasis is placed on survival and protection rights.
Under the protection rights, a child should be shielded from all types of violence at home and in society. Children should also be protected from child labor. In particular, children under the age of 15 years should not engage in any form of work (Kilkelly, 2017). Additionally, they should not beg in the streets. Abuse takes place in many forms. As such, it is the role of caregivers to ensure that children are protected from physical abuse, which involves hitting, kicking, or punching, by older children or adults (Kilkelly, 2017). Children should also be shielded from emotional and sexual abuse. Children should not be neglected as it may expose them to elements that cause addiction.
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Parents and guardians must ensure that children enjoy survival rights. These rights are essential for a child’s holistic growth and development. As such, parents and guardians should ensure children have access to shelter, food, clothing, healthcare, and education (Miller, 2015). The deliberate failure to provide these facilities to children is a crime and punishable by the law. For children in poor backgrounds, there are government programs that subsidize the costs of these amenities.
References
Cohen, C. P. (2017). The Role of the United States in the Drafting of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. In Children's Rights (pp. 75-88). Routledge.
Kilkelly, U. (2017). The child and the European convention on human rights . Routledge.
Miller, P. (2015). CHILDREN AT RISK. Child Advocacy and Early Childhood Education Policies in the Caribbean , 215.
