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A Situation Analysis
An initial step in child rights mainstreaming is to undertake an in-depth situation analysis at the level of a country or sector – what child rights are not being realised and for whom? Mapping this out can be done with the help of:
- State Parties’ reports submitted to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, as well as alternative reports prepared by civil society
- Concluding Observations by the Committee on the CRC to State Parties
- national and administrative statistics
- data provided at the country level by agencies such as UNICEF, Save the Children or local civil society organisations focused on children
- UNICEF State of the World’s Children and UNDP Human Development Index
Once unfulfilled child rights are identified, the next step is to understand why those rights for those particular children are not being realised. Child rights based approaches analyse and then aim to address the immediate, underlying and structural causes of child rights violations. The more specific the analysis of these causes, the more targeted and effective the proposed solution can be.
Move your mouse over the three types of causes to learn more.
Immediate causes of child rights violations are those most apparent, relating directly to the situation at hand. An immediate cause of malnutrition in girls might be reduced food supply due to poor rains, lack of family knowledge about nutrition or families prioritizing the nutritional needs of male family members.
Underlying causes are less obvious but remain implicitly related to the rights violation in question. They are often the result of poor or inadequate policies, laws, lack of resources or capacities. Underlying causes of girl child malnutrition might be faulty early warning systems for childhood malnutrition, poor food distribution systems, lack of nutrition training for parents and health professionals, inequitable land tenure policies, etc.
Structural causes are systemic political, social, cultural factors that can be common to a wide variety of rights violations. They reveal conditions that require long-term intervention to change prevailing attitudes and behaviours. A structural cause of girls’ malnutrition would to relate to the unequal status of girls and women in society based on gender roles. Another structural cause could be unequal distribution of public resources based on ethnic discrimination.