ABSTRACT
The 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (the Convention) creates in international law a duty upon States to accord children rights on a par with adults. A child is defined as ‘every human being up to the age of 18 years’, but the wording of the Convention does not address the starting point of childhood, that is, when does childhood begin? So the question remains: is it conception, birth or even somewhere in between? Children’s rights are limited, especially in their right to vote, but in international law the Convention is binding on States that ratify it, as the UK did in December 1991. However, it is important to realise that ratification does not make the Convention part of the domestic law – the government would need to enact the relevant legislation, as it did with the Human Rights Act 1998, which incorporated the European Convention on Human Rights in October 2000. The situation is different in the USA, where ratification of international treaties automatically makes them part of federal law, but the USA has not, as yet, ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
