La creación de los Defensores o Comisionados para la Infancia es un fenómeno reciente y en expansión. Cada vez más, nos estamos dando cuenta de que los niños son un grupo especialmente vulnerable y de que, por lo tanto, son necesarios mecanismos independientes para proteger y promover sus...

The first Innocenti Digest provides information on the recent and expanding phenomenon of ombudsmen/commissioners for children. It discusses the history of ombudswork, different patterns in the origin, development, mandate and status of the different types of ombudsman offices; the functions of...

Starting from Zero is a critical review of some of the main facets of the international cooperation undertaken on behalf of children in Rwanda from July 1994 to December 1996, with special reference to its consonance with, and promotion of, the spirit and the letter of the Convention on the...

From 1992 to 1995, the Children’s Rights Development Unit worked to promote the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in the UK. It chose five broad strategies: promoting awareness of the Convention and its practical application to children’s lives; monitoring the extent to which...

This Innocenti Study focuses on the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child as it relates to children’s basic economic and social rights in developing countries in terms of the obligations placed by the Convention on both States and the international community. A key...

This paper investigates the dilemmas that arise in applying the ‘best interests’ principle, particularly as the term is used in Article 3(1) of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, to concrete situations involving the treatment of children. The topics covered include: historical and...

Brazil has made concrete its commitment to the principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in the creation of a number of State Programmes of Action. This ‘decentralised’ strategy marks an unprecedented step in a country with a strong tradition of ‘top-down’ federal thinking...

Upon what criteria should the international human rights community base its assessment of how successful nations have been in meeting the obligations they signed up to at the CRC? Traditional methods of assessment have centred upon an analysis of comparative ‘social indicator’ statistics....