CRC/C/GC/21 disproportionate to reality. The media should be actively encouraged to use accurate data and evidence and conform to child protection standards to safeguard children’s dignity, physical security and psychological integrity. Article 3 (1) on the best interests of the child 28. The obligations attached to this right are fundamental, as part of a child rights approach, to secure the holistic physical, psychological and moral integrity of children in street situations and promote their human dignity. These children have been identified as particularly vulnerable. As the Committee has already stated, the best interests of a child in a specific situation of vulnerability will not be the same as those of all the children in the same vulnerable situation. Authorities and decision makers need to take into account the different kinds and degrees of vulnerability of each child, as each child is unique and each situation must be assessed according to the child’s uniqueness. 22 In this context, “vulnerability” should be considered in conjunction with the resilience and self-reliance of individual children in street situations. Article 6 on the right to life, survival and development Right to life 29. Children in street situations are at risk of, inter alia: extrajudicial killings by State agents; murder by adults or peers, including murder linked to so-called vigilante justice, and association with/targeting by criminal individuals and gangs, and when the State does not prevent such crimes; exposure to potentially life-threatening conditions associated with hazardous forms of child labour, traffic accidents, 23 substance abuse, commercial sexual exploitation and unsafe sexual practices; and death due to lack of access to adequate nutrition, health care and shelter. The right to life should not be interpreted narrowly. 24 It concerns individuals’ entitlement to be free from acts and omissions intended or expected to cause their unnatural or premature death, and to enjoy a life with dignity. In 1999, in the case of the torture and murder by police of three children and two young people in street situations in 1990, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled that arbitrary privation of life is not limited to the illegal act of homicide, but extends to the deprivation of the right to live with dignity. This conception of the right to life extends not only to civil and political rights but also to economic, social and cultural rights. The need to protect the most vulnerable people — as in the case of street children — definitely requires an interpretation of the right to life that encompasses the minimum conditions for a life with dignity. 25 30. The Committee has already highlighted that growing up in conditions of absolute poverty threatens children’s survival and their health and undermines their basic quality of life.26 Right to survival and development 31. The Committee expects States to interpret “development” as a holistic concept, embracing the child’s physical, mental, spiritual, moral, psychological and social development. Children in street situations have a limited range of activities and behaviours from which to choose for their survival and development in public spaces. States’ obligations under article 6 necessitate careful attention being given to the behaviours and lifestyles of children, even if they do not conform to what specific communities or societies determine to be acceptable under prevailing cultural norms for a particular age group. Programmes can only be effective when they acknowledge the realities of children in street 22 23 24 25 26 See general comment No. 14, paras. 75-76. See general comment No. 4, para. 21. The preparatory work of the Convention indicate that the rights to life, survival and development under article 6 were understood as complementary and not mutually exclusive, and that the article poses positive obligations (E/CN.4/1988/28). Joint opinion, Villagrán Morales et al v. Guatemala, Inter-American Court of Human Rights, 19 November 1999. Available from www.corteidh.or.cr/docs/casos/articulos/seriec_63_ing.pdf. See general comment No. 7, para. 26. 11