NCJ Number
237196
Journal
Child Abuse & Neglect Volume: 35 Issue: 12 Dated: December 2011 Pages: 990-992
Date Published
December 2011
Length
3 pages
Annotation
This article examines how the concept of accountability has been handled by countries implementing the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Abstract
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), adopted in 1989, was founded on the principle that all children have rights and that their right to survival, protection, well-being, and development should not be limited by their parent's income and functioning. Countries that have signed the UNCRC are legally obligated to report on their efforts to implement the provisions of the Convention to the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The author asserts that an empirical approach that goes beyond just counting is needed to understand how countries are meeting their obligations to implement the provisions of the UNCRC. The approach needs to employ transparent statistical analyses to determine how well a society/country is using its resources to support the rights of children and how close it has come to reducing to zero the correlation between family/parental financial resources and child opportunities.