UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is the most extensive and widely ratified international human rights treaty. This Commentary offers a comprehensive analysis of each of the substantive provisions in the Convention and its Optional Protocols on Children and Armed Conflict, and the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Pornography. It provides a detailed insight into the drafting history of these instruments, the scope and nature of the rights accorded to children, and the obligations imposed on states to secure the implementation of these rights. In doing so, it draws on the work of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, international, regional, and domestic courts, academic and interdisciplinary scholarly analyses. It is of relevance to anyone working on matters affecting children including government officials, policy makers, judicial officers, lawyers, educators, social workers, health professionals, academics, aid and humanitarian workers, and members of civil society.

Professor John Tobin holds the Francine McNiff Chair in International Human Rights Law in the Law School at Melbourne University. He has been a Visiting Professor at New York University, the Washington College of Law, American University, and Queens University, Belfast. He is a member of the Editorial Advisory Boards of the International Journal of Children's Rights and the Melbourne Journal of International Law. He has provided advice on children's rights tonumerous government agencies, judicial bodies, law reform commissions, NGOs and international organisations. In 2017 he was a member of an independent panel of experts which reviewed Taiwan's compliance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child. He is the Chief Examiner of the Law Institute ofVictoria's Child Law Specialisation Scheme and has worked in the Victorian Government's Department of Justice on youth justice issues as a senior lawyer with the Youth Legal Service at Victoria Legal Aid.