Child Poverty Is A Human Rights Issue

 by Dana Wensley

United Nations observation of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

On the 17th of October the world observed the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. Unfortunately this was the same day that in New Zealand we were given more evidence (this time from KidsCan) that families are struggling and kids are being left behind.

Far too many children continue to live in poverty in New Zealand. On average around 1 in 10 children. But the effects of poverty are not evenly experienced. One in five Māori children and one in four Pasifika children live in material hardship, meaning they lack 6 or more core items on a household survey. Disabled children and children with caregivers who are disabled also show higher rates of poverty, with one in five of these children experiencing material hardship.

Following the report last week from the Ministry of Social Development outlining the child poverty profile in New Zealand, it may be timely on this day to consider child poverty as a human rights issue. To live in poverty denies children their fundamental rights, and specifically interferes with their ability to thrive.

Children have rights guaranteed to them under the United Nations Convention on  the Rights of the Child which was ratified by New Zealand in 1993. The Convention guarantees fundamental basic rights to children in a series of articles. The one that relates to poverty is the right to a standard of living adequate for the child’s “physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development”.

A report jointly authored by the Child Poverty Action Group, Save the Children, Plunket, and New Zealand Council of Christian Services recently focused on preschool age children through the lens of the rights guaranteed under the Convention. We found that preschool was a critical age for child development, and poverty experienced at this age could have long ranging implications. Current child poverty measures have broad datasets that fail to allow us deeper understanding of poverty for pre-schoolers, which makes it hard for policy-makers to respond appropriately with swift interventions needed.

While many appear to grapple with moral arguments around the extent to which the State is responsible for children experiencing poverty, this argument has largely been depoliticised with the passage of the Child Poverty Reduction Act 2018. This ground-breaking Act sets out the ambitious purpose which is to establish child poverty measures, require the setting of child poverty reduction targets, provide monitoring reports, and identify ‘child poverty related indicators’, (meaning those factors that cause or contribute to child poverty, or are consequences of child poverty).

No week goes by where we do not hear more news from charities that are plugging the gap left by our stretched welfare system. Steps anticipated by this Government in 2018 to address poverty may no longer be enough to ensure we will lift the children out of poverty that current targets require. The Government has already failed to meet one out of three of its primary targets.

No one has a crystal ball to predict what lies ahead, but if we start with the agreed viewpoint that children are both our most vulnerable and valuable taonga, then hopefully we can adopt a joined approach to poverty that places the child at the centre, and views poverty as the human rights issue, it undeniably is.

Dr Dana Wensley is a researcher for CPAG.