For more than twenty years, Action Education has been working in Africa, Asia and Europe to ensure that every child has access to a quality education, can build a future for themselves and assert their fundamental rights. Our mission is clear: to give the younger generations the means to become autonomous, responsible and active players in their society.

Why talk about children's rights?

After the horrors of the Second World War, the international community realised that children needed special protection. Their vulnerability and dependence on adults led to the adoption in 1989 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the first binding treaty to recognise children as holders of human rights in their own right.

Ratified by Switzerland in 1997, the Convention sets out inalienable and universal civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. The International Day of the Rights of the Child is celebrated every 20 November, the anniversary of the CRC.
A Committee, made up of independent experts, monitors compliance with the CRC and its additional protocols, in particular on the involvement of children in armed conflict and the fight against sexual and commercial exploitation.

Reynaud Lacroze

The main principles of the CRC

The Convention is based on four fundamental principles:

1. Non-discrimination: every child must be able to enjoy his or her rights without distinction of any kind.
2. The best interests of the child: the well-being of each child must be the absolute priority.
3. The right to live, survive and develop: every child has the right to live and grow in conditions that promote his or her physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development.
4. Participation: every child has the opportunity to express himself, to participate in shaping his own life, to take action, to make choices and to have his opinions respected and valued.

These principles are set out in 54 articles which guarantee in particular:

• the right to an identity,
• the right to education,
• the right to healthcare,
• protection against violence,
• the right to play and leisure,
• the right to grow up in a safe environment.

Article 28 - The right to education

"The child has the right to education and the State has the obligation to make primary education compulsory and free, to encourage the organisation of different forms of secondary education accessible to every child and to ensure access to higher education for all, in accordance with each child's abilities. School discipline must respect the rights and dignity of the child. School discipline must respect the rights and dignity of the child. To ensure respect for this right, States shall have recourse to international cooperation". (1)

Article 28 of the CRC stipulates that every child has the right to free and compulsory education at primary level, and to education that is accessible to all at secondary and higher levels. However, despite the commitments made by governments, 272 million children around the world are still deprived of schooling, a situation exacerbated by poverty, inequality and humanitarian crises.

Christine Redmond

36 years on: rights still under threat

Children are still the first victims of conflicts and disasters. It is estimated that :

• 473 millions of children live in a conflict zone,
• 181 million children under 5 suffer from malnutrition,
• 234 million of children in crisis need urgent access to education.

The budget cuts announced by several donor countries further threaten the survival and education of millions of children. UNICEF is warning that by 2026, nearly 6 million more children are likely to be out of school.

The work of Action Education Switzerland

Since 2002, Action Education Switzerland has been working to ensure that every child, whatever their background, has access to an inclusive, quality school. Today, we are running nearly 70 projects in 13 countries, reaching 1.1 million beneficiaries.
Our actions focus on :

• the provision of safe educational infrastructure (wells, sanitation, latrines),
• training for teachers and school communities,
• he raising of awareness of children's rights and the importance of education,
• lobbying local and national institutions to make the right to education more effective.

Because children can only learn if they are healthy and live in a safe environment, we place education at the centre of a global approach that protects and promotes children's rights.

(1) UNICEF (Unofficial summary)
(2) UNESCO, 2025
(3) UNICEF, 2025
(4) The Lancet, June 2025