The Human Rights of Street and Working Children: A practical manual for advocates

Children who live and work on the streets or work in commercial situations at a young age, are subjected to gross injustice and are frequently neglected by national law --- despite the fact that almost every country has signed and ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

This is a one-stop guide both for experienced advocates and for non-specialists in the field. It explains how to use regional and international treaties and mechanisms for the protection and defense of street and working children when national law fails.

The last fifty years have seen the emergence of a range of human rights treaties together with permanent monitoring systems established by the UN. While these are imperfect tools, they can be very useful in supporting national campaigns, and creating pressure for legislative reform or an end to particular violations.

This manual, which presents information in an accessible question-and-answer format, is divided into three sections for ease of reference: the first section defines substantive rights --- survival, fair treatment, and empowerment; the second section provides practical guidelines on how to use regional and international human rights systems such as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, or the UN Committee on Torture; the last section contains a comprehensive list of human rights documents with tables by country detailing the status and the stage in the implementation process of each of the convention in each country.