Abstract
The narrative of why and how the UN developed and passed the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC) in 1989.
During the 1970s, there was a growing dissatisfaction in the UN with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It did not sufficiently protect children against harm, and it did not sufficiently respect the autonomy of children. Therefore, Poland suggested the creation of a convention for children. What followed was a unique political process characterised by dialogue and broad co-work, commitment to consensus and willingness to compromises. The result was that today, the Convention of the Rights of the Child is the most widely and rapidly ratified convention in the history of the UN.
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Notes
- 1.
Inspiration: https://culture.pl/en/article/maly-przeglad-a-little-review-with-a-big-impact (accessed 10.5.2019).
- 2.
Within the UN system the term ‘convention’ means ‘formal multilateral treaties with a broad number of parties’. ‘Declarations’, on the other hand, are not formal agreements; but rather statements of ‘understanding of some matter or as to the interpretation of a particular provision’. A ‘treaty’ is defined by the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties as ‘an international agreement concluded between States in written form and governed by international law’ (Grahn-Farley 2013: 244). Accordingly, a convention is a legally binding agreement (Nickel 2007: 15–16), while a declaration is an expression of an intention, with some moral weight. For further descriptions of the international legal human rights system, see Moeckli et al. (eds.) (2014); Krause and Scheinen (2012); Marks and Clapham (2005); For works with particular focus on children’s rights, see Van Buren (1995); Freeman (2012); Freeman (ed.) (2004); Archard (2014); and Koren (1996). The Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC) had international legal predecessors in the form of declarations, like the League of Nations’ The Geneva Declaration of the Rights of the Child from 1924 and the UN Declaration of the Rights of the Child adopted in 1959 (CRC: Preamble).
- 3.
Landmark cases were Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District 393 U.S. 503 (1969); Gillick v West Norfolk & Wisbeck Area Health Authority [1986] AC 112 House of Lords.
- 4.
Some scholars claim that there are only four guiding principles (Freeman 2012: 6; Koren 1996: 172; Van Buren 1995: 15). Archard says there are only three: “It is standard now to categorize the rights that are given to the child within the CRC in terms of the three P’s: provision, protection, and participation” (Archard 2015: 110). Other researchers operate with only two (Koren 1996: 173).
- 5.
There are dissenting voices to the idea of human rights as moral progress, see, for instance, Zigon (2013) and Freeman (2012). Attempts at addressing these worries can be found in Nickel (2014, 2007: 168–178), Tumulty (2009), Bates (2014: 27–28), Ishay (2008), Hunt (2008), and Archard (2015: 107–109).
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Eriksen, C. (2020). Co-work and Compromises: The Birth of the CRC. In: Moral Change. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61037-1_9
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