Considering the child like a person, respecting his or her specific needs and his or her rights (in and outside the hospital) will bare importance on this child's future and on how, as an adult, he or she will behave towards his or her own health and will care for it.

Thus, the way children and their parents are welcomed in a hospital, for example, is the reflection of the consideration that a society has for its members, the place it keeps for its children, their needs, their rights, and specifically in a hospital setting, their right to health. Respecting children's rights to health goes beyond a moral and legal obligation.

Thus, respecting all children's rights in the field of health is a project for which positive effects will be seen in the long term. Caring for children's rights to health is not only a question of law and rules but also a question of acting to ensure that these rights are being implemented.

APACHE (Association Pour l'Amélioration des Conditions d'Hospitalisation des Enfants) in 2005 published a report on the subject of the health of the child in the hospital, the health of the child outside of the hospital and the ways the child’s interests are being represented in France.
This report is based on two surveys realized by the organization into the actual practices of hospitals, on a survey on the place for parents of hospitalized children, a review of current literature on the topic, on the mails and testimonies received by the organization (mails from parents, professionals, organizations), and on telephonic interviews with professionals working in the field of children’s health.

This report bases its findings on the EACH Charter on hospitalized children, and also on the International Children’s Rights Convention (ICRC) and criteria stipulated by a French accreditation agency.

You can download the complete report here:

la_sante_des_enfants_en_france-translation.pdf