Core Commitments for Children
Promoting predictable, effective and timely collective humanitarian action.
The Core Commitments for Children in Humanitarian Action – the CCCs – are the core UNICEF policy and framework for humanitarian action. They are at the heart of our work on upholding the rights of children affected by humanitarian crises.
The CCCs promote equality, transparency, responsibility and a results-oriented approach to enable predictable and timely collective humanitarian action. Initially developed in 1998, and revised in 2010 and again in 2020, the CCCs are grounded in global humanitarian norms and standards and set commitments and benchmarks against which UNICEF holds itself accountable for the coverage, quality and equity of its humanitarian action and advocacy.
The CCCs are based on global standards and norms for humanitarian action
Guided by international humanitarian and human rights law, particularly the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and its Optional Protocols, the CCCs apply in all countries and territories, in all contexts, and to all children affected by humanitarian crisis. They also contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and include explicit strategies to link humanitarian and development action, strengthen local capacity and systems and build resilience at all stages of humanitarian action.
UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to save children's lives, to defend their rights, and to help them fulfill their potential. To learn more about UNICEF’s Core Commitments to Children, please visit www.corecommitments.unicef.org where you can find translations, the CCC toolkit, FAQs and related humanitarian knowledge and learning resources.
The CCCs were revised in 2020 to reflect the dramatic changes of the global humanitarian context in recent years. Humanitarian crises are increasingly protracted. Rising disregard for international humanitarian and human rights law and humanitarian principles characterizes conflicts, disproportionately affecting children and women. Population growth, urbanization, environmental degradation and climate change, large-scale migration, forced displacements, as well as public health emergencies increasingly compound the threats that children face. The CCCs have therefore been revised to equip UNICEF and its partners to deliver principled, timely, quality and child-centred humanitarian response and advocacy in any crises with humanitarian consequences.
Highlights
The Core Commitments for Children in Humanitarian Action – the CCCs – are the core UNICEF policy and framework for humanitarian action.
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