Roger Hart - The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child

The United Nations launched the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) became the most universally ratified treaty in history.

About Roger Hart

"I'm a professor in psychology at CUNY, trained in geography and most affiliated with the interdisciplinary field of childhood studies.

Much of my research has been on children's use and experience of the environment to try to improve planning and design for them, as well as to find methods for giving them a voice. I have helped International agencies, like the UN and Save the Children, with different projects all over the world that think about child participation."

The right to a voice

Human rights are essential for all humans. After women, children might be thought of as the last phase of Enlightenment thinking in terms of getting their rights recognised. It takes time for rights identified in any treaty to take hold in any society.

The United Nations launched the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in 1989 after a ten-year drafting process. Countries all over the world rapidly ratified it and it became the most universally ratified treaty in history. Ironically, I’m saying this from New York, in the only country that has not ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The CRC contains articles on provision and protection, as you would expect. Additionally, it includes articles on participation, on the rights of children to be actively participating in society, to have a voice, to have information and to be able to gather collectively. The treaty had a powerful effect. When the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child began to meet, the secretary was shocked to see how much children themselves had become the powerful agents of change. Having a voice turned out to be an excellent motor for the achievement of children’s rights. Children started to change the way some cultures viewed childhood, how adults saw children, as well as how children saw themselves as citizens with rights. It was a radical change.

Key Points

• The United Nations launched the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in 1989 after a ten-year drafting process. It became the most universally ratified treaty in history.
• It includes articles on provision and protection, as well as children’s rights to actively participate in society actively.
• It is dramatically helping protect children from harm, early marriage and all forms of domestic abuse.
• There are still children doing dangerous work.