Convention on the Rights of the Child is Adopted
November 20, 1989 · 20th Century
On November 20, 1989, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 44/25, concluding a drafting process initiated by Poland in 1979. The Convention's 54 articles codify civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights specific to persons under 18. It entered into force on September 2, 1990, and became the most widely ratified human rights treaty, with every UN member state except the United States eventually ratifying it.
Key Figures
Adam LopatkaJavier Pérez de CuéllarJames P. Grant
Locations
United Nations Headquarters, New YorkWarsaw, Poland
Topics
health rightscivil rightseconomic rightssocial rightscultural rightsunited nationspolitical rights
Connected Events — 3 Connections
The invasion of Poland and subsequent World War II exposed unprecedented violence against children and families, generating post-war international resolve to create specific legal protections for children as a vulnerable population requiring special safeguards Germany Invades Poland
Established the foundational principle that all humans possess inherent dignity and rights, but its generalized language left children's specific vulnerabilities unaddressed, creating the legal and moral gap that the Convention on the Rights of the Child was designed to fill Universal Declaration of Human Rights
CEDAW established crucial legal precedents for protecting vulnerable populations through international human rights law, directly informing the structure and approach used in drafting the Convention on the Rights of the Child a decade later Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
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