SECTION II
The
International Convention relating to the rights of the child and his
application
The International Convention relating to the rights of the
child is currently the legal instrument most complete as regards rights of the
child. Adopted in 1989, this convention thus intervenes after the adoption of
conventions of the International Labor Organization which we studied
previously. One can then wonder about the interest to adopt a new convention on
the rights of the child. For including/understanding the motivations of the
United Nations well, it is necessary to study the genesis of this text
(Paragraph I) before seeing its contents and its application in the national
laws (Paragraph II).
Paragraphe I :
Genesis of the
International Convention of
rights of the child
The international community began with slowness and relatively
recently, in the way having led to the International Convention of the rights
of the child. With the idea that the children had special needs succeeded the
conviction that the children had rights, and the same range of rights as the
adults with knowing of the rights, civil and political, social, cultural
and economic. The first legal stage was reached in 1924 when the Company of the
Nations ratified the first declaration, said Déclaration of Geneva, on
the rights of the child. The charter of the United Nations in 1945 has, its
side prepared the ground for convention by exhorting the countries to promote
and encourage the respect of the humans right and of fundamental freedoms
« for all ». The universal Declaration of the humans right
adopted in 1948, clearly revealed a will to recognize and protect the rights of
the children. It proclaims that « all the being human are born free
and equal in dignity and rights... », stresses that
« maternity and childhood are entitled to a help and a special
assistance » and sees in the family « natural and
fundamental elements of the company ». Always in 1948, the General
meeting also adopted a second Declaration on the rights of the child ; it
is a brief text which takes over Declaration of Geneva : « By
the present declaration on the rights of the child... the men and the women of
all the countries, considering that humanity must give to the child best
itself, state to have a duty to satisfy this obligation in all
connections... » Almost immediately after this second declaration, it
was taken the decision to work out a third declaration even more detailed which
led to the drafting of a third Declaration of the rights of the child adoptive
by the General meeting in 1959. However, these declarations state an intention
of moral nature : they are not constraining legal instruments, as the two
international pacts which will be adopted in 1961. These two relative
international Pacts, respectively, with the civil laws and political27(*) and the social and cultural
economic rights28(*) have
obligatory force for the States left and thus constitute for the countries a
legal obligation as well as moral to respect the humans right of each
individual. The Pact relating to the civil laws and political, aimed at
prohibiting slavery, serfdom and obligatory work, like protecting the minors
and envisaged the establishment of a Committee of the humans right made up of
18 independent experts who could be seized by a State left or a private
individual claiming to be victim of a left violation of the rights stated by a
State. The international Pact relating to the economic, social and cultural
rights contained provisions concerning obligatory and free primary education
teaching. These two pacts were ratified by 135 States out of the 185 Member
States of UNO.
So that the rights of the child carry the seal of the
international law, one thus needed a convention or a pact. Also, in 1978, with
the threshold of the international Year of the child sponsored by the United
Nations, Poland it officially proposed a project of text concerning a
Convention on the rights of the child. The following year, the commission of
the humans right of the United Nations created a working group charged to alter
and pack the Polish text of origin. The working group largely took as a
starting point the the universal Declaration of the humans right, of the Pact
international relating to the civil laws and political and of the Pact
international relating to the rights economic, social and cultural to work out
what became the 41 Leitartikeces of the International Convention of the rights
of the child. The General meeting of the United Nations adopted unanimously the
Convention on the rights of the child on November 20, 1989. To date, the
International Convention of the rights of the child is the instrument relating
to the humans right most largely and quickly ratified history. All the
countries ratified it today, except the United Arab Emirates, the United States
of America, the Islands Cook, Oman, Somalia and Switzerland29(*).
* 27 Pact relating to the civil
laws and political adoptee on December 16, 1966 and come into effect (after 35
ratifications) on March 23, 1976.
* 28 Pact relating to the
economic, social and cultural rights adoptee on 16 December 1966 and come into
effect on January 3, 1975
* 29 Report/ratio UNICEF
: « the situation of the children in the world 1997 »
above mentioned p.4
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