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2 - International children's rights

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

Jane Fortin
Jane Fortin
Affiliation:
University of Sussex
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Summary

Introduction

A large body of international human rights law exists today which informs the way that domestic law promotes children's rights in the UK. The translation of ideas about children's rights into principles of English law was undoubtedly accelerated by the British government ratifying a series of international instruments prepared by the General Assembly of the United Nations and by the Council of Europe. An event of outstanding importance was the ratification by the UK of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in 1991. This long and ambitious list of children's rights constitutes a painstaking attempt to define children's needs and aspirations and to commit ratifying states to their accomplishment. Although not part of English law as such, it currently exerts an increasingly powerful influence on the developing law and is often used as an international template against which to measure domestic standards.

Unlike the CRC, the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR) was not designed specifically to protect children as a group. But they, as human beings, are entitled to claim its protection and it has a direct influence on the way in which children's rights are protected in this country. Indeed, on 2 October 2000, the day on which the Human Rights Act (HRA) 1998 was implemented, the rights listed in the ECHR left the international domain and formed part of the slowly accumulating layers of domestic case law and legislation.

Type
Chapter
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Children's Rights and the Developing Law , pp. 33 - 78
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009

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