Short answer. Under Civil Code Article 356, every child is entitled to parental care, at least elementary education, moral and civic training, and the right to grow up in an environment conducive to physical, moral, and intellectual development. Parents and guardians are bound to provide all four.
What the law says
Every child: (1) Is entitled to parental care; (2) Shall receive at least elementary education; (3) Shall be given moral and civic training by the parents or guardian; (4) Has a right to live in an atmosphere conducive to his physical, moral and intellectual development.
Civil Code, Article 356 — Rights of Every Child. Read the full provision →
The four rights Article 356 protects
Article 356 lists four guarantees that apply to every child, regardless of whether the child is legitimate, illegitimate, or adopted. First, parental care — active, continuing attention to the child's welfare, not merely shelter. Second, at least elementary education — the law sets a floor, not a ceiling. Third, moral and civic training from the parents or guardian, recognising that character formation is a parental duty, not something delegated entirely to schools. Fourth, the right to live in an atmosphere conducive to physical, moral, and intellectual development. That last right is the broadest: it covers the household environment, the relationships the child is exposed to, and any conditions that could stunt growth.
Who is bound by these rights
The article speaks of parents or guardian. Where both parents are present, the duty falls on them jointly. When a legal guardian has been appointed — because the parents are deceased, absent, or have lost parental authority — the guardian steps into the same obligations. The phrase 'parents or guardian' signals that the law does not leave a gap: there is always someone accountable for delivering these four rights to the child.
The article does not make the rights conditional on the child's conduct or the family's financial standing. A parent cannot lawfully withhold elementary education as discipline, nor justify a harmful home environment on grounds of poverty. What poverty excuses is a different question; what Article 356 requires is not negotiable in principle.
What 'atmosphere conducive to development' means in practice
The fourth right — a home atmosphere conducive to physical, moral and intellectual development — is deliberately open-ended. It captures what the other three do not: the quality of the living environment itself. A child exposed to domestic violence, habitual substance abuse in the household, or neglect of basic health needs is being denied this right even if someone technically provides meals and school fees. When parents or guardians allow conditions that undermine the child's growth, they are in breach of this statutory duty, and that breach can become relevant in custody, protection-order, and parental-authority proceedings.
Connection to other protections
Article 356 is one of several Civil Code provisions on children's rights and duties within the family. It sits alongside rules on parental authority, the duties parents owe their children, and the conditions under which parental authority may be suspended or terminated. It is also consistent with later statutes — the Child and Youth Welfare Code and the Special Protection of Children Against Abuse — that extend and enforce these baseline rights. Article 356 is the statutory starting point; those later laws supply the mechanisms for enforcement and the consequences when the rights are violated.