English

Abstract

In the years following the COVID-19 pandemic, children and adolescents around the world continue to experience unprecedented levels of mental health problems. Governments’ failures to protect children from the development of mental health problems, and to treat and mitigate the effects of mental health problems after onset, violates children’s fundamental human rights under Articles 24 and 39 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). As child and youth mental health has become a global health priority, the global accountability systems embedded in the CRC present opportunities to hold governments accountable for their obligations to children and to promote holistic health by improving the conditions of the environments that children are raised in. This paper presents avenues for child mental health promotion through the human rights and policy framework and pays particular attention to the Canadian context.