United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child establishes a system of rights for the world's children. It provides a mechanism for gradual improvement in the governments' observance of those rights through national reports to the United Nations and periodic reviews by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. The fifty-four Articles of the Convention and its two Optional Protocols constitute an integrated system of common international standards for government conduct regarding children (under age eighteen) and their families.

Here are some of the primary rights protected by the Convention. It protects parents' roles in relation to their children and asks governments to help them in those roles. Children are protected against discrimination of any kind related to themselves or their ...