Convention on the Rights of the Child

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (commonly

abbreviated as the CRC, CROC, or UNCRC) is a human rights treaty which sets
out the civil, political, economic, social, health and cultural rights of children. The
Convention defines a child as any human being under the age of eighteen,
unless the age of majority is attained earlier under a state's own domestic
legislation.[4]
Nations that ratify this convention are bound to it by international law.
Compliance is monitored by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, which
is composed of members from countries around the world. Once a year, the
Committee submits a report to the Third Committee of the United Nations
General Assembly, which also hears a statement from the CRC Chair, and the
Assembly adopts a Resolution on the Rights of the Child.

Definition of the Convention

The Convention on the Rights of the Child is part of the legally binding
international instruments for the guarantee and the protection of
Human Rights. Adopted in 1989, the Conventions objective is to
protect the rights of all children in the world.
The 1st legally binding text that protects the rights of children
The Convention is the first legally binding international instrument of
Childrens Rights protection. That means that it establishes an obligatory force to
the body of all the rights it stipulates.
That implies that the States that ratified the Convention are obligated to respect
and to ensure that all rights it establishes in the name of children are respected.
The most comprehensive text for the protection of childrens rights
This Convention represents the most comprehensive international text that exists
in terms of childrens rights protection. Even though other international
instruments, such as the International Pacts, the ILO Conventions, and the
international adoption Convention guarantee childrens rights, the Convention
is the only text to address all aspects of childrens rights.
The Convention comprises 54 articles that establish the body of all childrens civil
and political rights, as well as their economic, social and cultural rights.
It also advocates the protection and promotion of the rights of special needs
children, of minority children and of refugee children.
This Convention establishes 4 principles that must govern the implementation of
all the rights it advocates:

Non-discrimination

Best interest of the child

Right to life, survival and development

Respect for the views of the child

The Convention was completed in 2000 with two Protocols and in 2011 with a
thrid one:

The optional Protocol regarding the involvement of children in armed

conflicts.

The optional Protocol regarding the sale of children, children prostitution

and children pornography.

The optional Protocol regarding the complaints procedure before the

Committee on the Rights of the Child.

A legally binding instrument endowed with a monitoring mechanism

The Convention advocates, in part II, that its implementation be monitored by a
committee of experts. It is the Committee on the Rights of the Child which
oversees that all participating States respect the Convention as well as
the two additional Protocols.
In India there is law that children under the age of 18 should not work, but there
is no outright ban on child labor, and the practice is generally permitted in most
industries except those deemed "hazardous". Although a law in October 2006
banned child labor in hotels, restaurants, and as domestic servants, there
continues to be high demand for children as hired help in the home. Current
estimates as to the number of child laborers in the country range from the
government's conservative estimate of 12 million children under 13 years of age
to the much higher estimates of children's rights activists, which hover around
60 million. Little is being done to address the problem since the economy is
booming and the nuclear family is spreading, thereby increasing demand for
child laborers. In India many people are still suffering from non-nutritious food,
many parents are still leaving their children on riverside, in trains etc. Under the
auspices of the Unicef financed Odisha initiative the Government of India is
specifying the outline of a means of change and improvement in child care, and
many trusts such as childLine, Plan India and savethechildren too are taking
efforts to outdate child labour from India [22] A few of the organisations who work
with children's rights in India are Plan India, CRY (Child Rights and You), Save the
Children, Bal Vikas Dhara-New Delhi, Bachpan Bachao Andolan, CHORDHyderabad.