The Right to a Standard of Living Adequate for the Child’s Development

The child's right to an adequate standard of living under the Convention on the Rights of the Child is very much a work in progress. Despite the wide range of elements captured within the scope of article 27— including food, clothing, housing, state assistance and programmes, and child support—and their centrality to child survival and development, this provision has been neither consistently nor extensively applied by the Committee on the Rights of the Child in its work. Nor has the right to an adequate standard of living received the level of scholarly attention that other economic and social rights such as the right to the highest attainable standard of health and the right to education have. Positively, the last few years have seen a greater role accorded to article 27 in child rights practice and scholarship, most notably in the CRC Committee's increased consideration of that provision in concluding observations and thematic issues addressed in General Comments, particularly in the context of addressing poverty. This chapter provides an overview and critical analysis of the law under article 27 as it stands, outlining key issues and suggesting how gaps in terms of the understanding and application of that provision can best be addressed