The Convention of the Rights of the Child is the first international legally binding instrument to include the full range of human rights. Including civil, economic, cultural, social and political rights. World leaders, in 1989 decided that a special convention needed drawing up for the children. Purely because, people under 18 years old, often need special care and protection, whereas adults do not. The leaders wanted the world to realize that children also have human rights too.
The Convention sets out these rights in 54 articles and two Optional Protocols. I’ve extracted the following articles from UNICEF.
Article 1. Definition of the Child. A ’child’ is defined as a person under the age of 18 - unless the country where the child lives set the legal age for adulthood younger.
Article 2. Non-discrimination. All children, whatever their race, religion or abilities, whatever they think or say, whatever type of family they come from, where they live, what language they speak, what their parents do, whether they are boys or girls, what their culture is, if they are rich or poor, whether they have a disability or not - all children are protection by the convention. Under any circumstances, no child should be treated unfairly.
Article 3. Best interests of the child. The main concern in making decisions for the child, should be the best interests of the child. When adults make decisions involving children, they need to think about how the decisions will affect the children. This especially applied to budget, policy and law makers.
Article 4. Protection of rights. Governments have a responsibility to take all measures to ensure that the children’s rights are respected, protected and fulfilled.
Article 5. Parental guidance. Governments should respect the rights and responsibilities of families to direct and guide their children. So, that as they grow up - they learn to use their rights properly....