Children are often seen but not heard. Yet their voice is crucial to their development process. Without a specific focus on children's rights, we risk missing the issues that matter to children and also fail to recognise that children play an important role in the development of their communities.

Moreover, according to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, children have the right to participate and take an active part in decisions affecting them. Malta ratified the convention in 1990 and since then, Government's policy on the child has best been projected in its White Paper "A Caring Society in a Changing World", a document which lists childhood and youth among its ten main areas of need.

All children have human rights, regardless of age, gender, race, ethnicity and disability. These rights are clearly set out in the UNCRC, which was agreed upon in 1989.

Children are seen 'by reason of (their) physical and mental immaturity', as needing 'special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth'. All rights fall within one of the four categories of prevention, protection, participation and provision.

Acting in the child's 'best interests' is the main guiding principle of the Convention, along with participation, non-discrimination and the child's right to survive and develop.

The Convention is the most widely accepted human rights treaty ever (with only two countries yet to endorse it) and commits governments to protect and ensure children's rights.

Particular attention is given to the needs of vulnerable groups of children such as:

Refugee children;

Children with disabilities;

Ethnic minority children and children of indigenous origin;

Working children;

Child victims of sexual, physical or other forms of abuse; and Children affected by armed conflicts.

Furthermore, the Convention defines children as all people under 18 and divides rights into three groups: basic principles which apply to all rights; non-discrimination on grounds of race, sex, religion, disability, opinion or family background; best interests of the child always to be considered by adults or organisations when decisions need to be taken;

the child's views to be heard and taken seriously; civil political rights, such as a name and nationality, access to information and protection from abuse, neglect, torture or the deprivation of liberty; economic, social, cultural and protective rights, such as the right to life and opportunities, a decent standard of living, day to day care, health care and a healthy environment, education and protection from exploitation.

The UNCRC demands that all actions of a state concerning children should have the best interests of the child as a primary consideration; it affords children the civil liberties that adults have in most developed societies.

Children's rights are rarely, if ever, given the priority and scrutiny they require. One of the most effective means of ensuring children's rights stems from the assurance of a voice that is heard and an adequate and easily accessible means of representation. As a minor is the weaker part in society and considered unable to stand alone and unguided, there must be someone responsible for his or her protection and welfare.

In this regard, the Commissioner for Children Act was passed and the institution for the Commissioner for Children was set up with the main purpose to promote and support the rights and interests of children guided by the principle that all children are to be treated with dignity, respect and fairness.

The Commissioner for Children Act enables the Office of the Commissioner for Children to encompass a number of functions and duties needed for the better protection and welfare of the child.

Above all, the Commissioner's role is to bring to the fore children's issues. Nonetheless, in the Annual Report of 2005, Sonia Camilleri, Commissioner for Children, mentioned that: "children make up nearly a quarter of our population, but are still not being given the minimum 25 per cent of our attention as a nation".

Ms Camilleri continued to explain that services to children should not only be quantified in financial ways. There are rights to development, rights to participation and rights to protection that need to be observed.

With this in mind, this report has been aptly entitled "Children can't wait". The delay of the proper implementation of such rights has harmful effects which may influence the child for life and, as Ms Camilleri rightly points out, unless we wake up to this reality, it will not only be the children who continue to suffer, but our society as a whole.

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