UN marks 20th anniversary of child rights treaty
Updated: Friday, November 20, 2009
13:00GMT—8:00AM/EST
Washington, 20 November (WashingtonTV)—The United Nations on Friday marked the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which it says has transformed the way children are treated.
The treaty, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1989, declares that those under 18 years old must be protected from violence, exploitation, discrimination and neglect.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that the treaty’s influence “has been profound”, and it has increased awareness of children’s specific problems.
But challenges remain in realizing the rights entailed by the treaty, he said, noting that millions of children lack access to food, water and education, and are victims of violence and exploitation.
The treaty has been ratified by 193 countries, making it the most widely supported international human rights treaty. Only two nations, the United States and Somalia, have not ratified it.
The U.S., which help draft the treaty, signed it in 1995, but never ratified it. In 2002, Somalia’s previous transnational government signed the treaty, but it also has not ratified it.
The UN Children’s Fund [UNICEF] said today that Somalia’s transitional government has announced plans to ratify the treaty.
The Obama administration has also expressed a strong desire to move the U.S. in the direction of approving the treaty, UNICEF executive director, Ann Veneman, told a news briefing in Geneva, according to the Associated Press.
On Thursday, UNICEF issued a report on the state of the world’s children.
It found that children in African and Asia suffer the worst, as more than 90 percent of children who are not attending school, who are malnourished and who die before the age of five, live in those two continents.
Violence against children also remains widespread. According to the report, between 500 million and 1.5 billion children are estimated to experience violence annually.
The treaty also prohibits the use of the death penalty against juvenile offenders, people convicted of crimes committed when they were under 18.
Iran, which is a party to the treaty, has faced strong international condemnation for its continued execution of juvenile offenders.
According to Amnesty International, at least 130 juvenile offenders are on death row in Iran. Iran leads all countries of the world in executing juvenile offenders.
Sources: United Nations website, United Nations Children’s Fund website, Associated Press, Amnesty International website
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