INTRODUCTION

The adoption of the Convention on the Right of the Child (CRC) by the United Nations General Assembly has been widely celebrated in many forms. The speedy ratification of the Convention and entry into force represents a celebration of the Convention. This has been followed by the emergence of writings about the then ‘new’ Convention. The wide spread of positive academic writings on children's rights is also a manifestation of celebration. Initially, most of these writings were mostly identificatory in nature, focusing on introducing a general overview of the then ‘new’ convention and the idea of ‘children's rights’. Some of them also focused on analysing and discussing the lengthy drafting process of the CRC. Over the years children's rights literature has evolved so as to become more specific about particular articles and standards of the Convention. Against this background, however, article 6(2) on the rights of the child to survival and development has remained among the articles that did not receive much attention within these specific children's rights academic studies. One can name only Manfred Nowak's commentary on article 6 of the CRC. Moreover, the implementation of article 6(2) has emerged, for some reason, as somewhat ‘limited’. This ‘narrow’ understanding influenced the effective implementation of the article,

The aim of this book is to provide an in-depth understanding and interpretation of article 6(2) of the CRC. The chapters of the book are all designed to collectively clarify the various perspectives on article 6(2) and the comprehensive nature of the right of the child to survival and development. However, each chapter on its own has added to the richness of the right to survival and development.

This very detailed analysis ranged from the right of the child to vaccination, the right to oral rehydration, the right to be protected from potentially dangerous motor vehicle driving, the right to education, the right to a reasonable State policy on children, the right of children to vote, the right not to be subjected to corporal punishment, the right to a democratic rule or Shura-based rule, and the right to survival and development and climate change.