The convention for all children

A child is an individual with personal oppinions, feelings and needs, just as adults are, that is what the convention of children’s rights says. It has not always been like that, actually the convention is the first time that adults all around the world have agreed that children must be respected as individual, not just as a crowd of less importance than adults.

Have children always had rights?

Before the convention was passed in 1989 children’s rights were protected by several different conventions, depending on the area of the world. The idea of the convention was to make a set of rules and regulations that applied to all children, just like the declaration of human rights appies to everybody.

The convention was long in coming, already in 1924 several countries started working on a set of rules concerning the way children should be treated.

The convention is no binding to parents or other members of the familie, it is directed to the governments. It is the responsibility of the government to give children the rights that they are entitled to according to the convention. This can be done through legislation and financial aid.

What happens to countries that do not respect the convention?

Countries that violates the convention can be condemned and criticised by other countries and organizations. Together these can put a lot of pressure on the countries that violates the convention. This sometimes makes the countries change the way they treat children, just as you would probably change the way you behave, if everybody criticised your behaviour. It is the Children Committee that makes sure that the convention is respected, and they are the first ones to report and to criticise if a country violates the convention.