ABSTRACT
During the twentieth century, the socio-legal status of the child changed dramatically. The adoption of three international treaties specific to the rights of the child – namely, the Geneva Declaration (1924), the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of the Child (1959) and the United Nations Convention on the Rights on the Child (1989) – increasing at each stage the number and different types of rights, is a remarkable illustration of this state of fact. National socio-legal developments have, of course, greatly inspired the authors of these treaties. However, the rights of the child assumed a new dimension in intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations, exchange platforms par excellence. This article seeks a better understanding of the circulation of children’s rights during the twentieth century, within the three above mentioned treaties. From an interdisciplinary and transnational perspective, the study aims to analyse the multiple facets of children’s rights and the origins of non-domestic influences in this international process. The article appraises the role of international and intergovernmental organisations. Based on archival data, it identifies the concepts, the institutions, the agents and the contexts that influenced the evolution of children’s rights. It shows how the genesis, the diffusion and the promotion of international treaties, as well as their subsequent regimes, structured the circulation of children’s rights.
