The Convention, with 193 States parties, is now ratified by almost the entire international community. Incorporating the full range of human rights - civil, cultural, economic, political and social, it creates an international legal framework for the protection and promotion of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all persons under the age of 18.

Eglantyne Jebb, founder of Save the Children, wrote the first Declaration on the Rights of the Child back in 1923. This Declaration of the Rights of the Child was adopted and promoted by the International Save the Children Union. Within a year it had been adopted by the League of Nations in Geneva.

Some 65 years later, the Declaration together with the Declaration on the Rights of the Child from 1959 became the basis of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). Adopted in 1989, the UNCRC is now the most important advocacy tool for children’s rights.

The UNCRC is based on four main principles which include survival and development, non-discrimination, child participation and the right to be heard and the best interest of the child.

As we commemorate the Convention’s twentieth birthday, we have an opportunity to reflect on the changes it has brought about during its childhood and adolescence and those we expect it will achieve in adulthood.