The child and the European Convention on Human Rights

Abstract

The unanimous adoption in January 1990 by the General Assembly of the United Nations of the Convention on the Rights of the Child marked the culmination of decades of work in the establishment, development and advocacy of children’s rights at international level. The children’s rights movement began with the adoption in 1924 by the League of Nations of the first human rights document specific to children, the document which established the assertion that ‘mankind owes to the child the best it has to give’. The Declaration on the Rights of the Child, 1924 is a non-binding document which uses uncomplicated language, derived from welfare, rather than human rights, law and its strong emphasis on the protection of the child and provision for the child’s economic, psychological and social needs reflects the view that children are the recipients of treatment, rather than the holders of specific rights. Nevertheless, the Declaration established a good base for the development of the rights of the child, principally because of its perception of children as the objects,rather than the subjects of international law.

This development began in earnest with the second Declaration on the Rights of the Child, adopted unanimously by the newly formed United Nations in 1959.4 The Declaration of Geneva, as it is called, consists of ten principles, which Enunciate the child’s rights and freedoms to be observed by governments. It established as principles, that the child is entitled to special protection and that the child’s best interests shall be the paramount consideration. Perhaps more fundamentally however, this non-binding Declaration adopts the language o f entitlement and can most importantly be credited with progress in the conceptualisation o f children’s rights.

Date of Award	Jul 1998
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Queen's University Belfast