JSM - Edition Two

C hallenges A nd O pportunities L ocally A nd G lobally - continued

The UNICEF Rights of the Child document also allows children to have the essential elements they require to grow and develop into a healthy adult. In the past, children were thought of as small adults, that is, they could and should do what adults do. However, in France in 1841 laws were created to protect children in the workplace and give them an education. This was during the industrial revolution in the 20th century. These laws started to spread across Europe and then included the rights of children to access medical care. Currently, UNICEF helps children all around the world to ensure they live the happiest and healthiest life possible. What right is challenged under my issue? The right of the child to have a high standard of health and access to good quality healthcare are challenged under my issue. In some third world countries, some people are not willing to help children with serious preventable diseases because they are scared that they will be infected with the disease, even though there are ways to prevent catching some diseases. People with disabilities also have a right to special care. Some communities and schools don’t have special care for people with disabilities resulting from some infectious diseases, for example Poliovirus. Why is the right challenged? In many third world countries, the right of children to access to good quality health care is compromised by the fact that people don’t have enough money to afford the correct medicine for children who have serious diseases. Often parents aren’t taking care of their children correctly due to lack of information, or they don’t give their children immunisations because they think the disease is not serious or is improving. Sometimes children don’t survive because they have lost their parents and have no-one to care for them or they don’t have access to fresh food or clean water. Sometimes their right to good health is challenged because the child can’t travel to the closest hospital quickly enough. This may be because of lack of transport or because they live on massive farms. This could be particularly important if, for example, they got bitten by a brown snake that is really venomous and it was an emergency situation. They could die because there are no hospitals close by. More specifically, in relation to HIV, the high incidence of children diagnosed with HIV in Cambodia is a direct result of a lack of programs targeting the prevention of mother-to-baby transmission during childbirth and shortly after birth.

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JSM Edition Two

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