ABSTRACT
Declaration on the Rights of the Child (20 November 1959) Declaration on Social and Legal Principles relating to the Protection and Welfare of Children, with Special Reference to Foster Placement and Adoption Nationally and Internationally (3 December 1986) Convention on the Rights of the Child (20 November 1989, into effect 2 September 1990) United Nations Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of the Liberty (14 December 1990) United Nations Guidelines for the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency (The Riyadh Guidelines) (14 December 1990) Optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict (25 May 2000, into effect 12 February 2002)
Amongst these, and all other pieces of UN ‘legislation’, it is the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child that remains the single most ratified of all such UN conventions. While not all of the articles are of direct relevance to teachers, it is perhaps surprising how many resonate with educational policy in religious and citizenship education. Worth highlighting here are Articles 27 (reference to the child’s ‘physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development), 29 (reference to the child’s ‘cultural identity, language and values, for the national values of the country in which the child is living’) and 30 (reference to ‘religious or linguistic minorities’). This is an instrument of immense importance about which too little has been made by educationalists in the United Kingdom, and which can be an inspiration in planning, and for this reason its principal articles are summarised as fully as possible in Box 3.2.
