Protecting the Rights of All Children: Using What We Know

Abstract

The unanimous adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) by the UN General Assembly on November 1989, followed by its entry into force on September 2, 1990, wrote into law internationally recognized standards for children’s rights and protection. As the 20th anniversary of the almost wholesale international ratification of CRC approaches (the United States alone continues to withhold its endorsement), we can see that writing a commitment into law and upholding and enacting law are not always synonymous. The care and protection of children remains a global imperative and their welfare is, if anything, more precarious than ever. Using the four key principles of CRC—Non-discrimination; Best interests of the child; Right to life, survival and development; Views of the child;—as analytic lenses, this concluding chapter reflects upon each essay in this volume to render visible the multiple meanings, as well as the power, of each principle in the lives of children, and illuminate possible actions adults—parents, families, teachers, educators, citizens—might take to uphold these principles in their struggle to preserve children’s rights.