Children and Peace

On 20 November 1989 the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) came into operation, promising children worldwide recognition of their civil, cultural, economic, health, political and social rights. The UNCRC is ‘the most rapidly and widely ratified human rights treaty in history’1 — with only the US still to ratify — and from the outset seemed to herald the consideration of children as distinct rights-bearing subjects, couched as it is in terms of the acknowledgement of children’s rights as a fundamental part of the process of securing their future. Over 25 years later, however, the promises of that document seem hollow. Children’s rights may be a more accepted concept, but the realization of those rights continues to be unfulfilled, and their welfare remains in a state of jeopardy...