Keynote address by Professor Geraldine Van Bueren given at the Garden Court Chambers Children's Rights Day Conference on 24th September 2009.
Children's Rights - Moving Forward by Professor Geraldine Van Bueren
Overcoming Cynicism and Children's Rights
25 years ago, it was not clear that there was going to be a Convention. Those of us who were drafting the Convention were criticised for including children's civil and political rights in the same treaty with economic, social and cultural rights. We were told that this was not how international law worked. For the same reason we were castigated for extending the Convention to violations in both war and peace. Then once it became clear that the Convention was to be adopted by the United Nations we were told, very few countries would ratify it. Read more.
© 2009.Professor Geraldine Van Bueren, a barrister, is Professor of International Human Rights Law at Queen Mary, University of London and Visiting Fellow, Kellogg College, Oxford. She is one of the original drafters of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and a recipient of UNICEF's child rights lawyer award.
