ABSTRACT
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 (CRC) is in many ways distinctive amongst international treaties and unique in terms of international law generally. It was produced after a lengthy drafting process that started in 1978. The participation of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in both the drafting process and the reporting mechanism is also significant. Another remarkable feature has been the way in which states have been eager to sign and ratify the CRC. On the first day the CRC was opened for signature (26 January 1990), no less than 61 states parties signed, somewhat of a record for an international treaty. The CRC entered into force in international law on 2 September 1990. A remarkable feature of the CRC is quite simply the near-global ratification it has received. There are 193 parties to the CRC; only Somalia and the United States remain to ratify it (see section 3.6). Detrick, who has provided a detailed and authoritative annotation of each of the substantive articles of the CRC, concluded:
While the Convention on the Rights of the Child may not be the last – or complete – word on children’s rights, it is the first universal instrument of a legally binding nature to comprehensively address those rights. As such, it forms a universal benchmark on the rights of the child – a benchmark against which all future claims for evolution will and must be answered.
