ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the protection accorded by international human rights to specific groups of individuals. It also examines the rights of children, tracing the reasoning behind developing a distinct set of rights for them. The chapter considers the nature and scope of those rights. For children, recognition of their human rights is a two-part process: first, recognition that children are entitled to human rights as their own independent rights, and second, recognition that children require additional protection, protection which the international community has articulated. Inherently vulnerable for physiological reasons, children depend on others for their survival in a manner not matched by any other groups which have been accorded discrete protection. The governing principle which underpins the entire convention and associated jurisprudence is the best interests of the child. In some theories, children’s rights exist to prepare the child for adulthood.
