Promoting the rights of Children with disabilities innocenti digest no

Convention on the rights of the Child 
The 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child 
(CRC) is the first binding instrument in international 
law to deal comprehensively with the human rights 
of children, and is notable for the inclusion of an arti-
cle specifically concerned with the rights of children 
with disabilities. The implementation of the CRC is 
monitored and promoted at the international level by 
the Committee on the Rights of the Child.
The CRC identifies four general principles that 
provide the foundation for the realization of all 
other rights:
non-discrimination;
• 
the best interests of the child;
• 
survival and development;
• 
respect for the views of the child.
• 
The principle of non-discrimination is reflected 
in article 2 of the CRC that expressly prohibits 
discrimination on the grounds of disability: 
States parties shall respect and ensure the rights 
set forth in the present Convention to each child 
...without discrimination of any kind, irrespective 
of the child’s...disability...or other status.
This principle is motivated by the recognition that 
segregated or separate facilities for education, health 
care, recreation and all other aspects of human life 
on the basis of disability can create and consolidate 
exclusion. These factors often perpetuate the 
negative perception of a child with a disability as 
4 international
standards and
meChanisms
a ’problem’ and, in doing so, maintain or reinforce 
mechanisms of discrimination.
Certain children require additional or different forms 
of support in order to enjoy their rights. For instance, 
a child with a visual impairment has the same right 
to education as all children, but in order to enjoy this 
right and to ensure her or his participation, the child 
may require enlarged print, Braille books or other 
forms of assistance. 
Article 23 of the CRC refers to the obligations of 
States parties and recognizes that a child with mental 
or physical disabilities is entitled to enjoy a full and 
decent life, in conditions that ensure dignity, promote 
self-reliance and facilitate the child’s active participa-
tion in the community:
States parties recognize that a mentally or physi-
i) 
cally disabled child should enjoy a full and decent 
life, in conditions which ensure dignity, promote 
self-reliance and facilitate the child’s active partici-
pation in the community.
States parties recognize the right of the disabled 
ii) 
children to special care and shall encourage and 
ensure the extension, subject to available resourc-
es, to the eligible child and those responsible for 
his or her care, of assistance…appropriate to the 
child’s condition…. 
…assistance extended…shall be provided free 
iii) 
of charge, whenever possible… and shall be 
designed to ensure that the disabled child has 
effective access to and receives education, train-
ing, health care services, rehabilitation services, 
preparation for employment and recreation op-
portunities in a manner conducive to the child’s 
achieving the fullest possible social integration 
and individual development, including his or her 
cultural and spiritual development. 
States parties shall promote…the exchange of 
iv) 
appropriate information in the field of preventive 
health care and of medical, psychological and 
functional treatment of disabled children…. In this 
regard, particular account shall be taken of the 
needs of developing countries.
This special article on children with disabilities 
is included “without prejudice to” the general 
applicability of the principles and provisions of the 
CRC to the situation of children with disabilities. 
The article adds force to the other provisions of 

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Innocenti Digest No. 13
Promoting the Rights of Children with Disabilities
Box 4.1 Human rights instruments and high-level decisions reinforcing the rights of persons with disabilities
Complementing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, 
Social and Cultural Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention 
on the Rights of the Child, the following texts and international events specifically address the rights of 
persons with disabilities: 
1971