Best interests | | Movimento Globale per i Diritti dell’Infanzia

The best interests of every child must inform and guide social, economic, cultural and environmental policies.

Art. 3
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

According to this fundamental principle that informs all articles of the Convention, those who have to make any decision concerning the life of a child must identify what is most likely to lead to the highest possible well-being for the child.

Around the world, children are facing an unprecedented confluence of crises: conflicts and wars, outbreaks of infectious diseases and increasing malnutrition, compounded by the problems caused by the climate crisis.

This year we have seen climate-related spikes in mortality, including catastrophic floods in Pakistan, historic droughts in the Sahel and Horn of Africa, and boiling heat waves in parts of Europe, the Middle East and North America. It is children who bear the brunt of a world in crisis, with millions of people struggling to survive.

The numbers show a detailed list of dangers and hardship:

• more than 468 million children live in conflict-affected areas;
• nearly 1 billion - almost half of the world’s children - live in countries of extreme vulnerability to the impact of climate change;
• at least 36.5 million children are displaced from their homes - the highest number ever recorded; and
• 8 million children under five are at risk of death from acute malnutrition.

Policies and programmes adopted in the best interests of children are decisions in the best interests of everyone, the future of the planet and societies. A child-friendly world is a safer, fairer and more sustainable world for all.