The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child: An Instrument for Creating a Healthy Environment for the Child

Abstract

This chapter discusses what is necessary to establish a "healthy environment" for children. The United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) was drafted between 1980 and 1989 in a rather political and complicated process with an open-ended working group of the then UN Commission on Human Rights. Only two states have not ratified the CRC: Somalia, due to the fact that it does not have an internationally recognized government and USA for lack of political will. But USA did ratify the two Optional Protocols to the CRC on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict and on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution, and Child Pornography. There is reason to believe that the new administration will work toward ratification since there are no obstacles that cannot be addressed in reservations if they pose serious legal problems. A Committee on the Rights of the Child (hereafter: the CRC Committee) has been established in accordance with art. 43 of the CRC. This committee is a body of 18 experts elected by representatives of the States Parties to the CRC in charge of monitoring the implementation of the CRC by the States Parties. This is done on the basis of reports regularly submitted by States to the CRC Committee and of reports submitted by UN agencies and NGOs. In addition, the CRC Committee issues so-called General Comments, documents in which the Committee provides States Parties and all others interested in the CRC with guidance on the interpretation and implementation of the CRC. I will come back to the work of the CRC Committee in the second part of this chapter. But first I shall discuss the importance of the CRC for the creation of a healthy environment for the child. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)