ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the inclusion of parents as 'third parties' in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) as a particular feature of the CRC compared with general human rights law instruments. Of the 16 articles that mention parents in the CRC, three provisions have been selected on the basis of their centrality to understanding the role of parents as third parties in the CRC: Articles 3(2 and 3), 5, and 18. In their critical review of the academic literature produced on the topic of the CRC between 1989 and 2009, Reynaert and others identify the children's rights/parental rights dichotomy as one of the three predominant themes explored in the social sciences and humanities literature. 'Responsibility' refers at once to parental duties towards the child and the state, to the parents' right to perform their role free from arbitrary state interventions, and the right to benefit from different forms of state support.
