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15 Hastings Int'l & Comp. L. Rev. 515 (1991-1992)
United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child: Will It Help Children in the United States

handle is hein.journals/hasint15 and id is 529 raw text is: United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child: Will It Help Children in the United States? By ELIZABETH M. CALCLANO* Member of the Class of 1992 I. INTRODUCTION The one hundred and forty-two countries that have signed or ac- ceded to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) hope it will improve the plight of the world's children. Adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in November 1989, the UNCRC provides a comprehensive list of children's rights. These rights include economic rights to an adequate standard of living and health care, social and cultural rights which include appropriate care and education, political and civil rights, juvenile justice rights, and humanita- rian rights during armed conflicts.2 The UNCRC went into force on September 2, 1990 after ratification by far more than the twenty required nations.3 Not even the [UNCRC's] most enthusiastic supporters could have predicted the extent to which it has been embraced by the international community or the speed with which it has become a legally binding treaty, wrote Cynthia Price Cohen, the United Nations Representative for Human Rights In- ternet.4 By December 16, 1991 more than 142 countries, well over three- quarters of the Member States of the United Nations, had signed or ac- * A.B., Bowdoin College, 1988. 1. Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted Nov. 20, 1989, G.A. Res. 44/25, U.N. GAOR, 44th Sess., Supp. No. 49, U.N. Doc. A/44/736 (1989), 28 I.L.M. 1448 (1989) [berein- after UNCRC]. 2. Id 3. AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION CENTER ON CHILDREN AND THE LAW, CHILDREN'S RIGHTS IN AMERICA: U.N. CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD COMPARED WITH UNITED STATES LAW at iii (Cynthia P. Cohen & Howard A. Davidson eds., 1990) [hereinaf- ter CHILDREN'S RIGHTS IN AMERICA]. The UNCRC entered into force on September 2, 1990 after twenty nations had ratified it. As of that date, the UNCRC is binding law for all nations which ratify it. UNCRC, supra note 1, art. 49, § 2, 28 LL.M. at 1475. 4. CHILDREN'S RIGHTS IN AMERICA, supra note 3, at iii. 515