Convention on the Rights of the Child: Implications for Canada (From Children's Rights: A Comparative Perspective, P 33- 64, 1996, Michael Freeman, ed. -- See NCJ-161805)

• NCJ Number: 161806
• Author(s): S J Toope
• Date Published: 1996
• Length: 32 pages
• Sale Source: Dartmouth Publishing Co Limited
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

This paper discusses the implications of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child for Canadian legal and social policies.

Abstract

The author begins with a review of the content of the Convention, highlighting relevant substantive elements and problems. In addition to identifying the Convention's challenges to Canada domestically, the discussion addresses difficult ethical issues that relate to Canada's role in the implementation of the Convention internationally. The second section of the paper analyzes certain assumptions that underlie the Convention and that have important implications for its implementation in Canada. The paper concludes with an inventory of the broad areas of social and legal policy that must be studied and analyzed in new ways now that Canada has ratified the Convention. Although the Canadian government has developed an "action plan for children" that purports to present a children's strategy in response to the Declaration of the Summit on Children, the plan is notably short on action. Furthermore, it does not address the Convention directly, since it consists largely of a general review of the socioeconomic position of children in Canada, an enumeration of both "challenges" facing Canadians and of certain actions already taken by the government. The author concludes that if the status quo is maintained, Canada will not be in full compliance with many of the provisions of the Children's Convention. 81 notes