The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history, setting out the civil, political, economic, social, cultural, and protective rights of every person under 18. It was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 20 November 1989 and entered into force on 2 September 1990 after the required 20 ratifications.
The treaty contains 54 articles. Substantive rights run through Articles 1–41 and are commonly grouped around four guiding principles identified by the Committee on the Rights of the Child:
- Non-discrimination (Article 2)
- Best interests of the child (Article 3)
- Right to life, survival and development (Article 6)
- Respect for the views of the child (Article 12)
Other notable provisions include protection from violence and abuse (Article 19), rights of refugee children (Article 22), education (Articles 28–29), protection from economic exploitation (Article 32), and juvenile justice safeguards (Article 40).
Implementation is monitored by the Committee on the Rights of the Child, an 18-member expert body based in Geneva, which reviews periodic State reports and issues General Comments interpreting treaty obligations.
Three Optional Protocols supplement the Convention:
- The Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict (OPAC, 2000)
- The Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography (OPSC, 2000)
- The Optional Protocol on a Communications Procedure (OPIC, 2011), allowing individual complaints
The CRC has been ratified by 196 parties. The United States signed the Convention in 1995 but has not ratified it, making it the sole UN member state outside the treaty — a frequent point of debate in MUN committees such as SOCHUM and UNICEF. The treaty has shaped domestic legislation worldwide on issues ranging from corporal punishment bans to minimum ages of criminal responsibility, and is routinely cited in UNICEF programming and in UNHCR guidance on unaccompanied minors.
Example
In 2014, Saudi Arabia underwent its second periodic review before the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva, which raised concerns about juvenile death sentences under CRC Article 37.