Peer-reviewed article
Do EU countries comply with the right to healthcare under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child? : Cristina Hernandez Quevedo
Hernandez Quevedo C, Scarpetti G, van Ginneken E ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This analysis examines whether all 27 EU member states and the United Kingdom comply with the right to healthcare for children as guaranteed by Article 24 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Although all countries studied have ratified the UNCRC, only four have specific legislation establishing unconditional universal healthcare rights for all children in their territory. The research identifies children with irregular residence status as particularly vulnerable to exclusion from healthcare coverage. The study highlights gaps where fragmented national legislation fails to guarantee healthcare access for certain groups of children.
Key points
- Only 4 out of 28 countries studied have legislation establishing an unconditional, universal right to health services for all children
- Children with irregular residence status face the most severe eligibility barriers to healthcare
- Fragmented national approaches to defining children's access rights create legislative gaps and coverage inconsistencies
- International treaties like the UNCRC require concrete transposition into national law to be effective
- Healthcare coverage gaps for vulnerable child groups become more critical during crises such as COVID-19 and displacement situations
Limitations
The study relies on secondary data from Health Systems in Transition reports and questionnaire responses from key informants, which may not capture all implementation details or on-the-ground realities of healthcare access. The analysis is limited to legal frameworks and may not fully reflect actual service availability, quality, or equitable provision of healthcare in practice.
Abstract
Abstract Children's health status varies within and between European countries. To what extent this is associated with access barriers to timely and effective care children may face is not yet fully understood. Article 24 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) guarantees a fundamental right to healthcare for all children, regardless of their legal status in terms of citizenship, residence, or insurance. Using information contained in the Health Systems in Transition reports produced by the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, additional relevant literature, and responses to a structured questionnaire filled out by key informants from all 27 EU MS and the United Kingdom, we evaluated whether European countries comply with the specific obligations that can be drawn from the UNCRC. While all countries considered have ratified the UNCRC, only four countries have included a specific disposition in their legislation that establishes an unconditional, universal right to health services for all children living in their territory. In other countries, the fragmented way of defining children's access rights can create gaps in legislation which can leave certain groups of children without coverage. Children with irregular residence are the most vulnerable group when it comes to eligibility problems, but other groups of children may also fall between the cracks or be only entitled to restrict-ed or conditional access to health care. These insights show that international treaties, such as the UNCRC, can help monitor health coverage and ensure that basic human rights to health services are guaranteed in times of crisis, such as the Covid-19 pandemic and the Ukraine Displacement, but may be insufficient without concrete transposition into national legislative frameworks.