30 YEARS OF THE UN CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD
With the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), on 20 November 1989, and its almost universal ratification 30 years later, the international community sends out a clear message to the world, which has fundamentally challenged – and continues to challenge – the way children are looked at in legal systems across the globe: each child must, first and foremost, be recognised as a human being with human rights and fundamental freedoms. This message has had far-reaching implications for domestic legal systems and the way children are treated, in theory and practice. It has resulted in the development of new legislation or the adjustment of existing law and practices, also under the influence of an emerging body of case law, internationally and nationally. A growing number of studies, more general and specific ones, confirm that the UNCRC and related international and regional standards have had a significant impact on legislation, jurisprudence and policy at the domestic level. The UNCRC has also generated additional standard-setting in different regions in the world, which has contributed to the development of a comprehensive, multi-level, dynamic and also complex legal framework.
Over the past 30 years, there have been serious efforts made to further develop and tailor the children's rights framework to specific contexts in which children live and develop, such as child protection, juvenile justice, health & biomedicine and migration; to specific themes, including violence against children, sexual exploitation and trafficking of children, children in armed conflict and children and digital technologies; and to specific groups of children, including children in conflict with the law, children as victims and witnesses and children in alternative care. As part of these efforts, the UNCRC's core notions have been upheld and elaborated upon. This is particularly true for the principle that the best interests of the child have to be a primary consideration ‘[i]n all actions concerning children’ (Art. 3(1) UNCRC), which in the view of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child means that these interests have ‘high priority’ and assumes an unconditional respect for children's rights and freedoms as a baseline.