Introduction

World Summit: Follow-up actions

Law reform

The leaders who gathered at the World Summit for Children urged the promotion of the earliest possible ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its effective implementation and dissemination. By the end of 1997, all but two countries had ratified the Convention. No other human rights instrument has amassed such a level of support in so short a time.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child has helped inspire the development of other international human rights standards, including the Optional Protocols on the involvement of children in armed conflict and on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, and new standards for inter-country adoption, child labour and juvenile justice. There has also been a trend by States parties to the Convention to review and withdraw any reservations they had initially registered to its provisions.

There have been significant developments at the regional level as well. In 1990, OAU adopted the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, the first regional charter of its kind. This entered into force in 1999. The Inter-American Convention On The Prevention, Punishment And Eradication Of Violence Against Women (the Convention of Belém do Pará) entered into force in 1995, and the European Convention On The Exercise Of Children's Rights came into effect in 2000.

At the national level, many of the new constitutions introduced over the past decade have included provisions explicitly guaranteeing children's rights, and existing constitutions have been amended to explicitly incorporate children's rights for the first time. Since the World Summit, countries from every region have also undertaken reforms to improve the conformity of their national legislation and codes with the principles and provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. These include:

• Laws to protect children from discrimination, especially in access to education and in the acquisition of citizenship and nationality;
• Increased legislative focus on the protection of children from violence, including within the family, and the prohibition of corporal punishment;
• Legislative measures for the care of children separated from their parents, often focused on reducing reliance on institutional care, establishing adoption procedures and fostering systems, and regulating intercountry adoption;
• Actions to counter harmful traditional practices, including laws prohibiting female genital mutilation and early and non-consensual marriages;
• Laws raising to 18 years the minimum age for recruitment into military forces;
• New laws to prohibit child prostitution, child trafficking for sexual purposes and child pornography;
• Labour laws setting minimum ages of access to employment, prohibiting the worst forms of child labour, recognizing the role of education as a key preventive measure and regulating working conditions;
• Specialized juvenile justice systems, setting minimum ages of criminal responsibility, foreseeing due process, viewing the deprivation of liberty increasingly as a last resort, and ensuring the separation of juveniles from adults in detention centres.

Several areas of national law reform have increasingly involved international cooperation, as reflected in extraterritorial legislation on sexual exploitation and trafficking, and in bilateral and regional agreements to combat the sale of children.

The involvement of countries in the reporting process under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and in dialogue with the Committee on the Rights of the Child, has also helped to identify necessary legislative changes. Many countries have taken initiatives following the recommendations of the Committee on their national progress reports, and have responded positively to suggestions that reservations to the Convention be reviewed with a view to their withdrawal.

For all of the positive developments to date, the process of reshaping national laws as a basis for the full protection of children's rights has only begun. Many countries have not yet established effective processes to review and reform their legislation and, over time, new challenges will arise, including from the recently adopted protocols to the Convention. Efforts made in the 1990s are very important first steps. But there is a continuing need to ensure that new laws reflect the provisions and principles of the Convention, especially those of non-discrimination, participation and best interests of the child. Law enforcement officials, the judiciary, teachers, child welfare professionals and others who work with children need to be trained and supported to fully understand the content and significance of new laws and regulations, to develop commitment to the changes involved, and to apply them. Children and adults alike need to be made aware of new laws, and the remedies and procedures they make available.

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