ABSTRACT
Refugee children flee their country of origin as a result of human rights violations. The human rights violations can be linked to discrimination based on race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, age or gender. As non-citizens, they face discrimination in the sense that they are viewed as refugees, subsumed within the male adult paradigm of refugee law, with little concern for their vulnerabilities as children. They also face discrimination in terms of care and protection as they tend to be identified in need of care and protection but often their distinctive needs as a refugee are not fully acknowledge and understood. The importance of Article 2 of the CRC is that it is a threshold right, placing an obligation on State parties to the CRC to vigorously engage with the individuality of a refugee child’s claim, thereby upholding the right not to be discriminated against as a child and as a refugee.
