Family Futures

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alance

the number of children attending school who have lost one or

both parents against those of the same age with both parents

alive. In sub-Saharan Africa, 91 orphans go to school for every

100 children of the same age with both parents alive. In South

Asia, this ratio is even worse, dropping to 72 orphans for every

100 children of the same age with both parents alive.

The facts for child marriage, which often involves the

marriage of adolescent girls to adult men, are equally alarm-

ing. Eleven per cent of girls worldwide are married before

the age of 15, jeopardizing their rights to health, education

and protection; more than one third are married by the age of

18. Child marriage often leads to pregnancy and parenthood

for adolescent female spouses. This impedes these adolescent

girls from fully realizing their rights as children and often

serves to perpetuate the intergenerational cycle of poverty and

inequity, as impoverished adolescent mothers give birth to

children who face significant disadvantages from birth.

An agenda for children and families

What can be done to break this cycle, and give each and every

child the opportunity to grow up in a caring, supportive and

protective family? There are no easy answers or quick fixes. But

there are actions that can contribute to supporting families, to

enable them to better realize the rights of their children.

First, governments must examine their support to families

and children, particularly the poorest and most marginal-

ized, and maximize their actions in support of them. Chief

among these efforts is to fulfil their commitments under the

Convention on the Rights of the Child, to recognize and

support the diversity of family structures, provide economic

support to impoverished families through social protection

and inclusive growth strategies, and to support positive

parenting at the same time as defending the rights of children

against all threats, including any that may originate within the

family and community.

Second, parents must become an integral part of all deci-

sion-making processes that affect children’s lives, including at

school, in the home and in political forums, from inception

to completion.

Third, families and communities must know the rights of

children, and be supported in their efforts to demand that

these rights be met. Equally important is that no family or

community member must ever be immune from prosecu-

tion for acts that violate children’s rights to protection from

violence, abuse and exploitation.

Fourth, the post-2015 agenda must underscore the

fundamental importance of families to stable, prosperous

and rights-respecting societies, and propose measures to

strengthen and support families in the rapidly changing world

of the twenty-first century.

Finally, a global conversation about the changing nature of

family and its implications for children, childhood and real-

izing the rights of all of the world’s 2.2 billion children needs

to be opened as we mark the International Year of the Family

and the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Convention on the

Rights of the Child. And that conversation must be sustained

far into the future.

Across the world, the size, demography and even the

concept of the family is changing. Family size is shrinking in

line with diminished fertility rates everywhere. At the same

time, family demographics are changing as many societies age

at a rapid rate, and the family demands of children are begin-

ning to be matched or even surpassed by those of the elderly

in some contexts. Our notions of family, long seen as biologi-

cal and blood tied, are also being challenged by new societal

structures, questions and interlinkages. As these change, so

must our understanding of family, accompanied by a debate,

a resolution and conclusion of the responsibilities of fami-

lies, however constructed and accepted, to the cornerstone

of family: children.

Families are pivotal to realizing children’s rights

Every child should have the opportunity to grow up in a caring,

supportive and protective family