Child Rights Convention Close to Universal Acceptance with 186 Ratifications; Only Six More to Go
January 1996
UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, today announced that only six countries remained until universal ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Convention has broken all records as the most widely accepted human rights treaty in history with the ratification by 186 State Parties. No other international covenant has been ratified so swiftly-in only six years-by so many countries. The Convention was adopted unanimously by the UN General Assembly in 1989, and came into force nine months later.
"The Convention stands alone in international human rights law as the clearest expression of what the world community has established as minimum standards for protecting the rights of children. A century that began with children having virtually no rights is ending with children having a powerful and wide-ranging instrument that not only recognizes but protects their human rights," said UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy. "Universal ratification was set as one of UNICEF's 1995 goals for children, and we are very excited about the excellent results," she said.
The only six countries in the world that have yet to ratify are Switzerland, the United States, Oman, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Somalia. Switzerland and the United States have already signed, indicating their intention to ratify. Brunei and Andorra were the last two countries to become State Parties to the Convention.
The Convention is the first international human rights treaty to combine civil and political rights with economic, social and cultural rights for children. Among the rights recognized in the Convention's 54 articles are the rights to education and basic health care, the rights to leisure and to play. Children also have the rights under the Convention to be protected from sexual exploitation and abuse, including prostitution and involvement in pornography, and from hazardous work that threatens their health. Countries which ratify the Convention are obliged to make every effort to prevent the sale, trafficking and abduction of children. And all children, under the Convention, have the rights to speak out and be heard. Above all, their best interests should be a primary consideration in decisions affecting them.
Ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child obligates governments to bring their laws in line with the Convention. Every ratifying nation is obliged to report within two years on efforts it has made to implement the rights of the Convention. National reports are reviewed by the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the official monitoring body of the Convention, formed by experts in the field of child rights and welfare.
But ratification of the Convention is itself just another step in a much bigger process. Governments, communities, and children themselves must work together to make the Convention a living charter for children's rights.
In bringing a new legal focus to children's issues, countries are now enacting new laws and amending national legislation to conform with the Convention's provisions. Special legal codes for children have been promulgated. Reports to the Committee of the Rights of the Child and other sources cite specific examples of basic measures countries are taking to comply with the Convention.
In Mexico, for instance, the constitutionally recognized Convention is considered "supreme law of the land." In Belgium and Germany, recent laws inspired by the Convention extend the national jurisdiction in cases of child prostitution and pornography by prosecuting individuals charged with "sex tourism." In Sri Lanka, the parliament unanimously passed four bills to bring about sweeping changes in existing laws related to child abuse, child labor and adoption.
In the area of juvenile justice, many countries have already begun to guarantee basic rights of minors who have come into conflict with the law -yet another example of how countries have implemented a fundamental tenet of the Convention. I n Vietnam, the Ministry of Justice is working with UNICEF and nongovernmental organizations to review the judicial process for juveniles, as well as to train judges, policemen and other legal professionals on how to apply the Convention. Other nations are even further along. On the basis of the Convention, El Salvador, Peru and Bolivia all enacted new justice codes for children. Mexico, Pakistan and Tunisia also modified laws to afford greater protection to young offenders. France moved to protect the right of minors to express themselves in court.
Although the right to a name and nationality is universally recognized, many children's births go unregistered. In Ecuador, Nicaragua, Peru and the Philippines, among other countries, the Convention has led to the promotion and facilitation of birth registration, training and large scale advocacy campaigns to ensure all children's names and birthdates are inscribed in civil registries. This universal right is already rescuing thousands of children from official non-existence and thus ensuring their access to basic health care, schooling and other rights.
Supporting activities to raise public awareness of the Convention and to monitor its implementation is perhaps one of the most important steps if the Convention is to work its way into all of society. Offices of ombudsman for children, at national as well as local levels, have been established to hear grievances and look out for children's interests in such countries as Austria, Colombia, Costa Rica and Spain.
Even in situations of war and its aftermath, countries have taken up the banner of the Convention to protect children. In Sierra Leone, for example, the government began demobilizing all children who had been recruited into or had enlisted into the armed forces and placed them in special rehabilitation programs. In Rwanda, the new government agreed to release all children charged with genocide from the squalid and dangerous adult prisons into UNICEF-supported rehabilitation centers. In the most significant effort yet, the two main opposition groups in southern Sudan committed themselves to the principles enshrined in the Convention, the first time any non-State Party has pledged commitment to the Convention.
Courtesy of the United Nations Department of Public Information
