The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is the world’s leading human rights treaty for children, setting out their civil, political, economic, and social rights. It establishes that every child is entitled to protection, guidance, and care that promote their wellbeing and development.
Core Principles of the CRC
The Convention is built on four guiding principles:
- Non-discrimination – All children are entitled to equal protection of their rights (Article 2).
- Best interests of the child – Every decision or action affecting a child must put their welfare first (Article 3).
- Right to life, survival, and development – States must ensure the conditions for children’s physical and emotional growth (Article 6).
- Right to be heard – Children capable of forming views must be allowed to express them freely in matters affecting them (Article 12).
These principles recognise children as individuals with their own voices while affirming that families and the State share the duty of safeguarding them.
Parental Rights and Responsibilities
The CRC acknowledges that parents have primary responsibility for the upbringing and development of their children (Articles 5 and 18).
The State’s role is supportive — to help parents fulfil their role, not to replace them except where necessary for the child’s protection. Parental guidance must be provided “in a manner consistent with the evolving capacities of the child,” meaning that as children mature, their participation in decisions increases, but adult responsibility remains crucial for safeguarding their wellbeing.
The Right to Health
Under Article 24, every child has the right to “the highest attainable standard of health.” States must provide safe, evidence-based medical services and ensure that treatments are in the best interests of the child.
This includes ensuring:
- Informed consent appropriate to the child’s age and maturity.
- Balanced, factual medical information.
- Protection from unnecessary or experimental procedures.
Healthcare decisions must balance the child’s right to participate (Article 12) with the parents’ duty to provide guidance (Article 5).
Surrogacy and the Right to Identity
Although surrogacy is not mentioned explicitly in the CRC, several articles are relevant:
- Article 7: The child has the right to know and be cared for by their parents.
- Article 8: States must respect and preserve a child’s identity, including their family relations.
- Article 9: Children should not be separated from their parents unless it is necessary for their best interests.
Concerns arise where commercial surrogacy arrangements may sever a child’s link to their birth mother or obscure their origins, potentially conflicting with these rights. Ethical debate continues over whether such practices prioritise adult choices over the child’s right to identity and family connection.
Altruistic surrogacy, by contrast, may align with the CRC if the child’s welfare and access to their origins are safeguarded.
Puberty Blockers and the Right to Health
The use of puberty blockers in children with gender dysphoria is an emerging area of international concern.
The CRC requires that all medical interventions affecting minors uphold:
- The best interests of the child (Article 3).
- The right to health and development (Articles 6 and 24).
- The right to express views (Article 12).
- Parental involvement and guidance (Article 5).
Under these principles:
- Treatments must be evidence-based, safe, and necessary, with long-term effects fully considered.
- Informed consent must be meaningful, recognising children’s evolving capacity to understand consequences.
- Decisions must not be driven by ideology or political pressure.
Some legal scholars and human rights experts suggest that prescribing puberty blockers where evidence of benefit is uncertain may conflict with Article 24’s guarantee of health protection. Others argue that denying such care, when clinically justified, could also constitute a rights violation. The CRC Committee has not taken a definitive position but consistently stresses that children’s health care must be grounded in scientific evidence and guided by their best interests.
Conclusion
The Convention on the Rights of the Child places the child’s welfare at the centre of all decisions, supported by the guiding role of parents and the protective duties of the State.
Whether in questions of surrogacy, medical intervention, or education, the CRC demands that every policy and practice serve the best interests of the child — preserving their health, identity, and right to a family life rooted in care, truth, and respect.
Source:
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child –https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention-rights-child