The Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1989. It entered into force in September 1990 following ratification by the twentieth state party. This led to the establishment of the Convention’s monitoring body, the Committee on the Rights of the Child.
The Convention sets out common standards and principles regarding children’s rights that are universal in application. However, while laying down common standards, the Convention takes into account the different cultural, social, economic and political realities of individual States so that each State may seek its own means to implement the rights common to all.
There are three optional protocols to the convention:
- The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict;
- The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography;
- The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a Communications Procedure.