Family Law

This article outlines the plethora of guidance published by international human rights bodies in relation to the Covid-19 and children. These include the UN Secretary-General’s policy brief on Covid-19 and children, statements by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, guidance by agencies such as UNICEF, UNESCO and the WHO as well as organisations such as the World Bank and UN special procedures mandate holders including on the sale and sexual exploitation of children, and on violence against children. 

The article focuses on five human rights themes: (a) participation and information, including efforts to produce age-appropriate information about infection prevention and control; (b) violence, exploitation and abuse including the documented increase of domestic violence against and witnessed by children, new forms of child sexual abuse and a feared increase of forced marriages and female genital mutilation; (c) education, including the challenges of home-schooling and the adverse impact on disabled children; (d) supporting families: protecting children from household income shocks and preventing tens of millions of children living in hardship from falling into poverty; and (e) children in detention including calls on states to release children from all forms of detention and putting in place a moratorium on new admissions wherever possible.