The Convention on the Rights of Children
Growing up, I could not possibly count the number of times my parents told me how hard it was to raise a child in this world. I can, however, remember how hard it was being one. Luckily, I was blessed with two loving parents who always had my best interests in mind and eventually as I passed through the innocence of my youth and the awkwardness of adolescence to where I am today, I got to fully understand the sacrifices that they made on my behalf. I also realize that not everyone has guardians who are able or willing to make such sacrifices, and as a result children can often suffer. As a society, we must investigate potential dangers to children that could hurt their upbringing both physically and mentally, and come to terms with certain solutions that would help underprivileged children. According to UNICEF, an estimated 12 million children under the age of five die every year of easily preventable causes, and about 160 million children are severely or moderately malnourished. These figures only describe the tip of the iceberg in terms of physical barriers that children around the world face, and we cannot ever truly know the amount of emotional abuses that coincides with this figure. Clearly, something is not right and needs to be addressed in order to protect children on a global level.
In order to determine the manner in which to protect children, we have to examine the nature of their rights. Do children have the need for special rights aside from established adult human rights? I would think so, and many would agree with that conclusion. Issues such as infant mortality, child labor, and child abuse extend beyond the scope of adult human rights. For instance, whereas an adu...
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... to be addressed in addition to the human rights afforded to adults. Children are more vulnerable than adults and face several different issues that currently are not addressed in world affairs. The Convention on the Rights of the Child attempts to address these matters, but the lack of support from the United States gives the document a lack of esteem in terms of world respect. Obviously, there is something wrong with the picture that the U.S. and Somalia (which only does not sign because it does not have an official government) are the only countries to hold out from the process. The United States has the obligation as a world leader to not only participate in human rights issues, but to be an active leader in such matters. The U.S. has failed in both respects, and owes it to the children of the world to be a signatory on the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Explain the importance of promoting the rights of children and young people to participation and equality of access.
It is clear that China’s one child policy has affected Chinese society in multiple ways. The policy has resulted in corruption in the Chinese government, an abuse of women’s rights, female feticide, and an imbalance in the gender ratio, and potential problems with China’s elderly and younger populations. The Chinese government decided to implement a one child policy in order to counter the effects of rapid population growth. The question to ask is if the benefits of population control really do outweigh the problems the policy has created in Chinese society. It will be interesting to see if the policy continues to affect Chinese culture in the future, and how the changes that have been recently made play out.
Ifezue G. Rajabali M., ‘Protecting the interests of the child’ [2013] Cambridge Journal of International and Comparative Law 1: 77–85
Child abuse in general is quite complex and at the same time one of the most challenging social issue facing people all around the USA. Child abuse cases have been recorded in all the states of the USA. The cases occur in all areas be it cities, small towns, suburbs, and even in rural areas. The vice also happens in all types of families regardless of the ethnic origin of the family or the even family income (UNICEF, 2015). It is thus important that effort is put into reducing cases of child abuse.
Wells, Karen C.. "rescuing children and children's rights." Childhood in a global perspective. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2009. 168-169. Print.
United Nations (1989). Convention on the Rights of the Child.[online] Available at: [Accessed 1 April 2014].
• International treaty covering the rights of all children, through 54 articles, including the right of the child to express his/her views in relation to decisions being made that may affect them and their
Hynes, Samuel. "Several Interpretations of Lord of the Flies." Readings on Lord of the Flies. Ed.
About 25 years ago, UNICEF enacted the Convention of the Rights of the Child. This document lists 54 articles concerning every single right every single child should have regardless of race, sex, location, religion, etc.. This document also contains three optional protocols directed
UNICEF (1989) United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Available at: http://www.unicef.org/crc/files/Rights_overview.pdf (Accessed: 10 January 2014).
The Conventions on the Right of the Child is a very important treaty as it was the first legally binding treaty, adopted in 1989 but came into force in 1990, which covers human rights specifically for individuals under the age of 18. [2] According to the treaty all countries must insure that their citizens under the age of 18 have "easy access to human rights such as civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights." 2. (Play the video on the treaty).
Globalisation has increased modern technology all over the world enabling more people, such as globally separated families, to maintain contact. Increased media coverage also draws the attention of the world to human rights violation which can lead to an improvement in human rights. This is not a reflection of all marginalised groups. In Australia, the detention of unaccompanied asylum seeking children (UASC) contravenes the United Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), however the media are prohibited to enter detention centres and report on this issue (Cemlyn and Briskman, 2003).
Women may have an abortion for a variety of reasons, but in general they choose abortion because a pregnancy at that time is in some way wrong for them. “Abortion is the removal of a fetus from the uterus before it is mature enough to live on its own” (Kuechler 1996). When this happens spontaneously we call it a miscarriage. Induced abortion is brought about deliberately by a medical procedure that ends pregnancy. Legal abortion, carried out by trained medical practitioners, is one of the most common and safest surgical procedures. “About 1.5 million American women choose to have induced abortions each year. Less than 1% of all abortion patients experience a major complication associated with the procedure” (Kuechler 1996).
Looking at the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and even the United Nations Study on the Violence against Children it visible that a global movement is taking place to prevent any physical harm from coming to a child, even in the form of chastisement at home.
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, hereafter referred to as ‘CRC’, is the most inclusive legal document devoted to the promotion and protection of children’s rights. Upon ratification, State Parties are supposed to be bound to the CRC through international law. However, as Cynthia Price Cohen (one of the drafters of the CRC) identifies, the CRC ‘does not lay down specific rules with sanctions for noncompliance’. Thus, it is imperative that the CRC have enforcement mechanisms in place to ensure implementation. This essay will discuss how the existing weak enforcement mechanism is hindering the State Parties from reaching the objectives of the CRC.