 effectively respected in the other contracting states (article 1). Removal or retention of a child is deemed wrongful if: a) it is in breach of custody rights attributed to a person, an institution, or any other body, either jointly or alone, under the law of the State in which the child was habitually resident immediately before the removal or retention; and b) at the time of removal or retention those rights were exercised, or would have been but for the removal or retention (article 3, paragraph 1).
The European Convention Concerning the Custody of Children 1980
The European Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Decisions Concerning the Custody of Children (the Luxembourg Convention) seeks to protect the rights of custody and access to children in the international context. It calls upon the central authorities designated by States Parties to provide “free, prompt, non-bureaucratic assistance” in determining the whereabouts and restoring custody of an improperly removed child.They must also avoid prejudice to the interests of the child or of the applicant in restoring child custody, among other requirements. Like the 1980 Convention, the Luxembourg Convention defines a child as being under the age of sixteen (article 1(a)). Also, under both instruments, the right of action lies with the custody holder. The Luxembourg Convention uses the term “improper removal” to refer to “the removal of a child across an international frontier in breach of a decision relating to his custody” given in a State Party and enforceable in that State (article 1(d)), in contrast to the 1980 Convention’s term “wrongful removal or retention” of a child and the CRC’s term “the illicit transfer and non-return of children abroad” (article 11).
Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention 1999
The Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention (WFCLC) refers in the Preamble to the need to adopt new instruments for the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, “to complement the Convention and the Recommendation Concerning Minimum Age for Admission to Employment, 1973, which remain fundamental instruments on child labour.” For the purposes of the WFCLC, the term “child” applies to all persons under the age of eighteen (article 2). The “worst forms of child labour” comprise: (a) all forms of slavery or practices similar to it, such as the sale and trafficking of children and forced labor (including forced recruitment for armed conflict); (b) the use, procuring, or offering of a child for prostitution or for pornography or pornographic performances; c) the use, procuring, or offering of a child for illicit activities such as drug trafficking; and (d) work that is likely to harm children’s health, safety, or morals (article 3). Each State Party is to adopt measures to: prevent the engagement of children in the worst forms of child labor; to provide direct assistance for the removal of children from such labor and for their rehabilitation and social integration; to ensure access to free basic education and, wherever possible and appropriate, to vocational training for all children removed from the worst forms of child labor; to identify and reach out to children at special risk; and to take account of the special situation of girls (article 7(2)).
VI. Other Initiatives
Among recent developments regarding children’s rights are an international call for action to end violence against children and a resolution adopted by the U.N. General Assembly on the establishment of a Human Rights Council.
Prepared by Wendy Zeldin
Senior Legal Research Analyst
- Stephen R. Arnott, Family Law: Autonomy, Standing, and Children’s Rights, 33 William Mitchell Law Review 809 (2007). Arnott notes that “the very term ‘children’s rights’ is both broad and loose,” id. at 808. [Back to Text]
- The U.N. Declaration of the Rights of the Child comprises a Preample and ten principles. G.A. Res. 1386 (XIV), 14 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 16) at 19, U.N. Doc. A/4354. For an online text of the Declaration, see the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHC