ghts. One of the key principles in the DRC is that a child is to enjoy “special protection” as well as “opportunities and facilities, by law and by other means,” for healthy and normal physical, mental, moral, spiritual, and social development “in conditions of freedom and dignity.” The “paramount consideration” in enacting laws for this purpose is “the best interests of the child,” a standard echoed throughout legal instruments on children’s rights. Among other DRC principles, a child is entitled to a name and nationality; to adequate nutrition, housing, recreation, and medical services; to an education; and, for the handicapped, to “special treatment, education and care.” Other principles are on protection against neglect, cruelty and exploitation, trafficking, underage labor, and discrimination.
Minimum Age Convention 1973
The aim of the Minimum Age Convention (MAC) is to establish a general instrument on the subject of the minimum age of employment with a view to achieving the total abolition of child labor (Preamble). Thus, each State Party is to “pursue a national policy designed to ensure the effective abolition of child labor and to raise progressively the minimum age for admission to employment to a level consistent with the fullest physical and mental development of young persons” (article 1). States Parties must specify a minimum age for admission to employment or work, subject to certain exceptions set forth in the MAC. That minimum may not be less than the age of completion of compulsory schooling and, in any case, less than fifteen years, but it may initially be set at fourteen years if a state’s economy and educational facilities are insufficiently developed (article 2). Exceptions to the age limits may also be permitted for light work or for such purposes as participation in artistic performances (articles 7 and 8). If the employment may be hazardous to a young person’s health, safety, or morals, the minimum age is generally not to be less than eighteen years (article 3(1)).
U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989
The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is the most comprehensive document on the rights of children. Based purely on the number of substantive rights it sets forth, as distinct from implementation measures, it is the longest U.N. human rights treaty in force and unusual in that it not only addresses the granting and implementation of rights in peacetime, but also the treatment of children in situations of armed conflict. The CRC is also significant because it enshrines, “for the first time in binding international law, the principles upon which adoption is based, viewed from the child’s perspective.” The CRC is primarily concerned with four aspects of children’s rights (“the four ‘P’s”): participation by children in decisions affecting them; protection of children against discrimination and all forms of neglect and exploitation; prevention of harm to them; and provision of assistance to children for their basic needs. For the purposes of the CRC, a child is defined as “every human being below the age of eighteen years unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier” (article 1).
Key accomplishments of the CRC have been described as five-fold. It creates new rights for children under international law that previously had not existed, such as the child’s right to preserve his or her identity (articles 7 and 8), the rights of vulnerable children like refugees to special protection (articles 20 and 22), and indigenous children’s right to practice their culture (articles 8 and 30). In some instances, this innovation takes the form of child-specific versions of existing rights, such as those in regard to freedom of expression (article 13) and the right to a fair trial (article 40). In addition, the CRC enshrines in a global treaty rights that hitherto had only been found in case law under regional human rights treaties (e.g., children’s right to be heard in proceedings that affect them) (article 12). The CRC also replaced non-binding recommendations with bin