Global Health Council on the Importance of Child Health


Posted on 06-05-2009	Translate this page

The Importance of Child Health : The Right to Health International consensus supports a rights-based approach to address children’s health and wellbeing, given the importance links between early childhood living and its impact on future human development. Child health and well being can be measured through various indicators - including birth weight, life expectancy, and infant mortality rates (IMR), for instance - which can also reflect the healty and well being of communities. As such, statistics about the health of children play an important role in indicating the health of a society - and its future health and prospects. Investing in the health and wellbeing of children is a sustiainable way of addressing human development in a manner that looks out for the needs, rights and wellbeing of future generations.

Article 24 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child obliges all children "the right to the highest attainable standards of health," and calls for a need to fulfill a number of related indivisible rights, which directly impact child health. This includes, forexample, the right to clean and safe environments, food and shelter.

Macroeconomic health indictaors reveal that child health and poverty alleviation are inextricably link. Poverty results in interlinked and unattainable freedoms, including malnutrition, which influences further child development. Poor health is also related to poor school attendance (if at all), and prevents children from really learning because of malnourishment. Similarly, persistent and prevalent childhood diseases such as dysentry and diarhea- which are linked to poor sanitation and lack of clean water - further support the need for a right-based approach towards addressing children’s health.

Read more on the "Importance of Child Health" by the Global Health Council.