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Article: Assembly adopts new Convention ... for the children of the world.... (international Convention on the Rights of the Child)
- Article from:
- UN Chronicle
- Article date:
- March 1, 1990
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After 10 years of negotiations, the General Assembly on 20 November adopted an international Convention on the Rights of the Child. It took the Assembly only two minutes to officially turn the 54-article instrument into a universal standard against which children's basic rights will be measured throughout the world from now on.
The Convention, an initiative of Poland, was adopted by consensus on the 30th anniversary of the 1959 Declaration on the Rights of the Child. It must be ratified by 20 countries before it enters into force.
The Convention defines a child as "every human being below the age of 18 years".
For children, this is the Magna ...