Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Convention on the Rights of the Child
    The Convention on the Rights of the Child
    The Convention on the Rights of the Child
    Ebook103 pages6 hours

    The Convention on the Rights of the Child

    By Department of Global Communications

    2/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Thirty years ago, world leaders made a historic commitment to the world’s children by adopting the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. This Convention, one of the core human rights instruments, has become the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history and has helped transform children’s lives around the world. But still not every child gets to enjoy a full childhood. Still, too many childhoods are cut short. It is up to our generation to demand that governments, businesses and communities fulfil their commitments and take action for child rights now, once and for all. They must commit to making sure every child, has every right. This book is published to commemorate this momentous anniversary.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherUnited Nations
    Release dateNov 20, 2019
    ISBN9789213582916
    The Convention on the Rights of the Child

    Read more from Department Of Global Communications

    Related to The Convention on the Rights of the Child

    Related ebooks

    Law For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Why the Vienna Declaration Remains Relevant

      Sep 7, 2023

      This year is the 30th anniversary of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action (Vienna Declaration) adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights held by the United Nations in Vienna, Austria. At present, humans are at a historical crossroads.

      5 min read

    • Article

      Contributions To World Peace And Common Development

      Nov 3, 2022

      Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 2012, under the leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Xi Jinping at its core, China has made historic achievements and transformations in pursuing economic and social de

      5 min read

    • Article

      Equity, Justice and Inclusiveness

      Jun 29, 2023

      Thirty years ago, delegates at the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna, Austria, overcame differences and adopted the landmark Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action. While affirming the equality of all human rights, the document reiterate

      1 min read

    • Article

      Covid Is The Greatest Test Of Global Solidarity In Decades – We Have To Work With, Not Against, Each Other

      Feb 4, 2021

      In September 2000, 189 countries signed the Millennium Declaration, shaping the principles of international cooperation for a new era of progress towards common goals. Emerging from the Cold War, we were confident about our capacity to build a multil

      4 min read

    • Article

      High Stakes

      Oct 22, 2020

      The author is Counselor of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, China Seventy-five years ago, our fathers’ generation won the epic victory of the World Anti-Fascist War through years of heroic struggles. The ensuing decades witnessed the founding of the

      6 min read

    • Article

      Protecting Progress

      Jul 27, 2023

      Protecting Progress
      4 min read

    • Article

      A Return to Multilateralism

      Oct 7, 2021

      Many countries today advocate a return to multilateralism. So what kind of multilateralism does the world need? It should never be selfish, nor should it ever put the national interests of one country above shared global ones. It should never be abou

      4 min read

    • Article

      Multilateralism Under New Circumstances

      Nov 4, 2021

      This year marks the 50th anniversary of the restoration of the People’s Republic of China’s lawful seat in the UN. With this historic event, the Chinese people, accounting for one fourth of the world’s population, were able to return to the UN family

      5 min read

    • Article

      A Common Approach To Security

      Jun 29, 2023

      A Common Approach To Security
      4 min read

    • Article

      Corruption Continues To Erode Human Rights

      Mar 20, 2021

      MARCH 21 will always be remembered as a historic day of great tragedy. It is the day on which more than 60 unarmed black people were shot and killed by the apartheid police during a peaceful protest against the oppressive and undignified pass laws in

      3 min read

    • Article

      Corruption Continues To Erode Human Rights

      Mar 20, 2021

      MARCH 21 will always be remembered as a historic day of great tragedy. It is the day on which more than 60 unarmed black people were shot and killed by the apartheid police during a peaceful protest against the oppressive and undignified pass laws in

      3 min read

    • Article

      Corruption Continues To Erode Human Rights

      Mar 20, 2021

      MARCH 21 will always be remembered as a historic day of great tragedy. It is the day on which more than 60 unarmed black people were shot and killed by the apartheid police during a peaceful protest against the oppressive and undignified pass laws in

      3 min read

    • Article

      Corruption Continues To Erode Human Rights

      Mar 20, 2021

      MARCH 21 will always be remembered as a historic day of great tragedy. It is the day on which more than 60 unarmed black people were shot and killed by the apartheid police during a peaceful protest against the oppressive and undignified pass laws in

      3 min read

    • Article

      The United Nations’ Role

      Sep 17, 2020

      The author is professor of international affairs at China Foreign Affairs University In October 1945, after the world achieved victory in the Anti-Fascist War, to avoid another such disaster, the major countries proposed to establish the UN. Over the

      4 min read

    • Article

      Human Rights Festival Goes Virtual

      Mar 20, 2021

      THE Constitution Hill Human Rights Festival was a casualty of the Covid-19 pandemic last year. This year, the event is adapting to the new normal, presenting 10 days of virtual events, free and open to all. The festival brings together key thinkers,

      1 min read

    • Article

      All Rights Matter

      Jun 29, 2023

      All Rights Matter
      7 min read

    • Article

      A ‘Paradox Of Strong Commitments, Weak Outcomes’

      Mar 20, 2024

      THE Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 10, 1948, and it recognised the “inherent dignity and … equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family” as the “foundatio

      4 min read

    • Article

      No Respect, No Progress

      Aug 11, 2022

      What are human rights and what should be done to develop them? Officials and experts from China and other countries shared their views at the Beijing Forum on Human Rights in Beijing on July 26. While agreeing that global cooperation is needed to fac

      4 min read

    • Article

      Toward the Post-Pandemic World

      Jul 22, 2021

      After the scientific victory of developing vaccines, stopping the COVID-19 pandemic is now financially and pragmatically feasible. The only obstacle now is a lack of international political will and cooperation. According to recent World Bank and Int

      5 min read

    • Article

      Cloud Diplomacy Dispels Dark Cloud of COVID-19 Challenges

      Jul 30, 2020

      While the trajectory of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and its economic and political fallout remain unclear, it can be outlined that the pandemic has posed unprecedented political and social challenges, ratcheted up the risk of a

      11 min read

    • Article

      Can International Law Save the Planet from Climate Change?

      Mar 24, 2023

      An advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice could help modernize the fight for climate justice.

      3 min read

    • Article

      25 Nations In Favour Of A Global Pandemic Treaty

      Apr 3, 2021

      EUROPEAN Council President Charles Michel has championed the call for an international treaty to make the world better prepared to respond to pandemics and health crises. This powerful idea of a treaty rooted in the World Health Organization (WHO) ha

      3 min read

    • Article

      25 Nations In Favour Of A Global Pandemic Treaty

      Apr 3, 2021

      EUROPEAN Council President Charles Michel has championed the call for an international treaty to make the world better prepared to respond to pandemics and health crises. This powerful idea of a treaty rooted in the World Health Organization (WHO) ha

      3 min read

    • Article

      25 Nations In Favour Of A Global Pandemic Treaty

      Apr 3, 2021

      EUROPEAN Council President Charles Michel has championed the call for an international treaty to make the world better prepared to respond to pandemics and health crises. This powerful idea of a treaty rooted in the World Health Organization (WHO) ha

      3 min read

    • Article

      China Answers The Call Of The Times

      Oct 6, 2022

      Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi delivered a speech at the General Debate of the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the U.S., on September 24. Edited excerpts follow: We are at a time fraught with cha

      3 min read

    • Article

      V. Contributing to World Peace and Development

      Sep 2, 2021

      The CPC is a political party that seeks happiness for the people and progress for humanity. No matter how the global situation might have changed, the CPC has always pursued the shared human values of peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy

      18 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Convention on the Rights of the Child

    2/5

    2 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      The Convention on the Rights of the Child - Department of Global Communications

      The Convention on the Rights of the Child

      A photo shows children from all continents standing and holding the flag of their country.

      UN Photo / Paulo Filgueiras

      Overview

      Children are the greatest treasure of humankind.

      Children need special protection.

      Children have rights.

      The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is one of the core international human rights instruments. It aims to promote and protect the rights of children all around the world. It defines a child as a human being under the age of 18.

      The United Nations General Assembly adopted the CRC and opened it for signature on 20 November 1989. The treaty entered into force on 2 September 1990. It has been ratified by 196 countries and territories, making it the most widely ratified human rights treaty in the world. All Member States of the United Nations, except the United States, have ratified the Convention.

      The CRC calls on all States Parties (meaning the countries that have ratified the treaty) to take every appropriate measure to ensure that the rights of all boys and girls, whether civil, cultural, economic, political or social, wherever they happen to live, are promoted, protected, respected and enforced at every level within their respective jurisdictions and societies.

      The CRC includes such fundamental and inalienable human rights as that to life, have a name and a citizenship; freedom of speech and thought; access to healthcare, education and leisure, and freedom from exploitation, unlawful detention, torture, abuse and neglect. The overarching concern of the CRC is that everything must always be undertaken to promote and protect what is in the best interest of the child in all circumstances. It affirms that all children need to live in an atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding.

      Nascence and historical evolution

      Throughout history, children have always required special protection as the most vulnerable members of the community. However, it is not until the twentieth century that a movement to specifically address the rights of the most vulnerable among us became clearly nascent.

      In 1924, the League of Nations, the precursor organization to the United Nations, adopted what became known as the Geneva Declaration on the Rights of the Child, a historic document that recognized and affirmed for the first time the existence of rights specific to children and the responsibility of adults towards them.

      Years later, in the wake of the Second World War, which had wreaked devastation and sorrow upon humanity and particularly millions of children, the world moved to proclaim the advancement of human rights in a series of proclamations of universal potency.

      On 26 June 1945, the Charter of the United Nations, the foundational treaty of the Organization, proclaimed in its preamble that one of its central aims was:

      (…) to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small

      In 1946, the United Nations General Assembly established the International Children’s Emergency Fund, UNICEF, for the purpose of advancing the cause of children throughout the world.

      Two years later, taking a further step, the Member States of the United Nations universally and collectively recognized the rights of children in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948.

      Article 25 of the UDHR states that:

      Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection

      Another step was taken in 1959 when the Member States of the United Nations further enunciated children’s rights by unanimously adopting the Declaration on the Rights of the Child, which built upon the 1924 Geneva Declaration. The 1959 Declaration, which incorporates language from the UDHR, consolidated ten fundamental principles:

      The right to equality, without distinction on account of race, religion or national origin.

      The right to special protection for the child’s physical, mental and social development.

      The right to a name and a nationality.

      The right to adequate nutrition, housing and medical services.

      The right to special education and treatment when a child is physically or mentally handicapped.

      The right to understanding and love by parents and society.

      The right to recreational activities and free education.

      The right to be among the first to receive relief in all circumstances.

      The right to protection against all forms of neglect, cruelty and exploitation.

      The right to be brought up in a spirit of understanding, tolerance, friendship among peoples, and universal brotherhood.

      By the mid-1960s, the international community also acknowledged the special rights of children in the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which were both adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 16 December 1966. Both the ICCPR and the ICESCR entered into force in 1976.

      Article 10.3 of the ICESCR states that:

      Special measures of protection and assistance should be taken on behalf of all children and young persons without any discrimination for reasons of parentage or other conditions. Children and young persons should be protected from economic and social exploitation. Their employment in work harmful to their morals or health or dangerous to life or likely to hamper their normal development should be punishable by law. States should also set age limits below which the paid employment of child labour should be prohibited and punishable by law.

      Article 24 of the ICCPR states that:

      Every child shall have, without any discrimination as to race, colour, sex, language, religion, national or social origin, property or birth, the right to such measures of protection as are required by his status as a minor, on the part of his family, society and the State.

      Several milestones were

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1