The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child: Developing an Information Model to Computerize the Monitoring of Treaty Compliance

Abstract

The Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted by the UN General Assembly on 20 November 1989,1 has inspired an overwhelmingly positive response from the entire world community. On 2 September 1990, a little more than six months after the Convention was opened for signature on 27 January, the Convention achieved the required number of ratifications necessary for it to go into force. A year later, a total of ninety-four countries had become states parties to the Convention. Never before had a human rights treaty been ratified by so many states so quickly.2 The Convention is a comprehensive treaty, covering the full range of human rights.3 Its forty-one substantive articles protect the economic, social, cultural, civil, political, and humanitarian rights of the child.4 The earliest reports from states parties to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the monitoring body of the Convention, are due on 2 September 1992.5 The first reports must include detailed information about each of the