Child rights in action
Path to the Convention on the Rights of the Child
The entry into force of the
Convention on the Rights of the Child on 2 September 1990 marked
the culmination of nearly 70 years of efforts to obtain international
recognition of the special needs and vulnerability of children as
human beings
The road to the Convention dates back to 1924 when the League of
Nations, the precursor to the United Nations (UN), endorsed the
first Declaration of the Rights of the Child, which stated that
"Mankind owes to the child the best that it has to give."
But the better was yet to come.
The 1924 Declaration was improved upon in 1948 when the United
Nations-formed in 1945 after World War II-adopted a second Declaration
of the Rights of the Child that included seven points of concern
related to children. That same year, a Universal Declaration on
Human Rights was also adopted by the UN General Assembly. A third,
more detailed Declaration of the Rights of the Child was adopted
by the General Assembly in 1959.
In 1966, the UN adopted two International Covenants on Civil and
Political Rights and on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. Both
of these Covenants along with their amendments known as "Optional
Protocols" and the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights make up the International Bill of
Human Rights, which came to fruition in 1976 when both Covenants
entered into force.
The Declarations on Children's Rights passed by the United Nations
were statements of goodwill and not legally-binding treaties. This
meant that while states agreed with what the Declaration had to
say about children's rights, they were not legally obliged to ensure
that those rights were upheld in their countries.
So in 1978, child rights Non-Governmental Organizations used preparations
for the International Year of the Child as a platform to successfully
lobby for a legally-binding Covenant or Convention for Child Rights,
similar to other legally-binding tools for advancing human rights.
On the eve of the 1979 Year of the Child, the Government of Poland
took the lead on this initiative and formally proposed draft text
for just such a Convention. The Polish draft was essentially the
1959 Declaration of the Rights of the Child with the addition of
legal text on implementation of the ten-point declaration.
In 1979, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights established
a working group to review and expand on the Polish text. The group
consisted of a broad range of governmental representatives and members
of civil society groups. Independent human rights experts and observer
delegations of non-member governments and UN agencies such as UNICEF
also participated in the drafting of the Convention. Their careful
work continued for ten years, from 1979 to 1989, when the Convention
was unanimously adopted by the United Nations General Assembly.
In September 1990 the treaty was put into effect and became legally-binding
for all those who ratified it. That
same month, government leaders gathered together for the 1990
World Summit for Children, one of the largest meetings of government
leaders in history. At the Summit, a World
Declaration and Plan of Action were
agreed upon that would advance the fulfillment of the rights of
children.
" A century that began with children having virtually
no rights is ending with children having the most
powerful legal instrument that not only recognizes
but protects their human rights." - Carol Bellamy,
UNICEF Executive Director
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