ABSTRACT
Although children’s rights are widely accepted as being an important aspect of human rights, they have been opposed for a variety of reasons, including fears that they undermine family life, and the view that they simply reflect adults’ views of what children should expect. One of the most important manifestations of acceptance of children’s rights is the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989, which establishes them firmly as an acknowledged source of international obligations on ratifying states. International instruments protecting the right to ‘private’ and ‘family’ life apply to children as much as to adults. A survey of the concept of ‘family’ in international instruments argues that it consists of both structural and normative elements.
