A/HRC/28/33 education benefits individuals, communities and countries: it saves lives, improves nutrition, reduces child, early and forced marriage, and leads to more equal, respectful and open societies.7 6. Regardless of how profitable these returns are, investment in children must be viewed through the lens of the rights of the child rather than be driven by any development benefit. The goal must be investment in the rights of children, in addition to investment in children. As the General Assembly emphasized in the annex to its resolution S-27/2 entitled “A world fit for children”, investing in the rights of children lays the foundation for a just society, a strong economy and a world free of poverty. III. International legal framework 7. The Convention on the Rights of the Child places an obligation on all States parties, including the international community, to mobilize and allocate resources in order to invest in children. It recognizes that it is only through government budgets that services to children, such as health, education, and social protection, are delivered and children’s rights realized. 8. According to article 4 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, States parties are required to undertake all appropriate legislative, administrative and other measures for the implementation of the rights recognized in the Convention. Whatever their economic circumstances, therefore, States parties must take all possible measures towards the realization of the rights of the child. 8 Article 4 also recognizes that social, economic and cultural rights can be particularly resource intensive; in relation to such rights, States parties must therefore take such measures to the maximum extent of their available resources and, where needed, within the framework of international cooperation. 9. Two important points must be made in this regard. First, article 4 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child does not relieve States parties of the obligation to realize the civil and political rights of children immediately. This includes, for example, the right to birth registration (art. 7), the right not to be separated from parents (art. 9), the right to participation (art. 12) and the right to protection from violence (art. 19), which all have resource implications: implementation of these rights requires legal frameworks, capable and appropriately resourced institutions and mechanisms to support children whose rights are violated. Resources must immediately be allocated to making such rights a reality, regardless of the economic situation of the country. 10. Second, while recognizing that the social, economic and cultural rights of children may not be able to be immediately realized by all States parties, article 4 imposes specific, measurable, obligations on them by requiring that the “maximum extent of their available resources” be focused on achieving these rights. This does not imply that poorer countries may avoid their responsibilities; rather, it should be understood as a call for the prioritization of children within the State budget to ensure appropriate levels of service delivery.9 States parties that claim resource constraints must prove that every effort has been made to move towards the full enjoyment of these rights as a matter of priority, and 7 8 9 4 Plan International, “Financing the right to education”, briefing paper, 2014. Available from http://plan-international.org/files/global/briefing-paper-financing-the-right-to-education.pdf. CRC/GC/2003/5, para.8. Enakshi Ganguly Thukral, “Budget for Children”, in Aoife Nolan, Rory O’Connell, Colin Harvey, Human rights and Public Finance: Budgets and the Promotion of Economic and Social Rights (Inbunden, Hart Publishing, 2013).