Children

Experts have been ringing the alarm bells about children’s privacy online for some time, but the pandemic exacerbated the need to focus on children as right bearers in the digital age. So, what steps need to be taken in order to ensure that children are treated as such and we can build a society resilient to the digital crises of the future?

Technology played a significant part in traffickers taking advantage of COVID-19's second wave in India. A number of children lost both their parents and for a few weeks, 'COVID orphan adoption' messages proliferated across social media. State institutions and civil society were unprepared for this challenge.

Children’s rights activists and international aid agencies in Lebanon and throughout the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region claim school closures, rising poverty rates and lack of legal barriers mean more underage refugee girls being forced to marry during COVID-19.

Lockdown-induced restrictions due to COVID-19 have taken a toll on education. With remote teaching being the only feasible way to impart knowledge, underprivileged learners have been disadvantaged. Catch-up classes may be a way to achieve realisation of the right to education.

COVID-19 school closures have put girls at increased risk of unintended pregnancies. This in turn puts them at increased risk of dropping out or being excluded from school. Article 10(c) CEDAW obliges States Parties to eliminate the gender stereotypes that block girls’ education rights.

The national child helpline in India received a record number of calls during the country’s first COVID-19 lockdown in 2020. Its ability to provide a safety net for children’s protection rights can be an inspiration for other countries.

Insecurity in terms of abduction from schools and the COVID-19 pandemic have halted slow but positive gains in the Nigerian education sector, impacting negatively on rights in education. Budgeting to secure the learning environment is needed to ensure that the human right to education is put back on track.

COVID-19 increased challenges to providing inclusive education for children with disabilities in Zimbabwe. Although alternative programmes have been introduced, these rely heavily on remote learning which excludes many children with disabilities, due to lack of resources, technology, support and training.

‘Punctuated.’ It’s not a widely-used word, and I can’t think of a time in the past when I considered it. Yet ever since the arrival of COVID-19, it feels about right.

Since deprivation of liberty has a particularly severe impact on the physical and mental health and development of children, who are still in their formative years, the Convention on the Rights of the Child permits the detention of children only as a measure of last resort.