International law was traditionally concerned with regulating the relations among states with the primary aim of maintaining international peace, which subjects a state as a solid atomistic legal fiction. However, the leading concept of human rights w...
International law was traditionally concerned with regulating the relations among states with the primary aim of maintaining international peace, which subjects a state as a solid atomistic legal fiction. However, the leading concept of human rights was that of state sovereignty, which forbade states from interfering with each other’s internal affairs. The UN introduced the concept of human rights into international law without altering the concept of sovereignty. This legal framework is, however, subject to intense political pressures, as states and other actors seek to realize their interests and their principles in the international arena. The implementation of human rights by the UN is therefore highly politicized, and this leads to selective attention to human-right problems, political bargaining and delays.
Formerly There are no definitions of other terms used to describe young people such as “adolescents”, “teenagers”, or “youth” in international law. However, consensus on defining children's rights has become clearer in the last twenty years. A child is a person, not a subperson, and the parent has absolute interest and possession of the child. The term “child” does not necessarily mean minor but can include adult children as well as adult nondependent children.
Meanwhile, according to some researchers, the notion of children’s rights is still not well defined, with at least one proposing that there is no singularly accepted definition or theory of the rights held by children. Therefore, definitions of child can be discussed in various perspectives in international laws and it raises problems that conflicts or well adjusted to municipal laws. At least, the setting of the upper age limit of 18 on the definition of a child remains an important target for some countries.
The implementation of the UN’s human - rights principles was seriously delayed and distorted for many years by the politics of the cold war. The UN proclaimed human rights, but did little to implement them. The cost of proclaiming human rights is low, and many governments, in the conditions of the cold war, thought that they had much to lose by respecting the human rights of their sometimes highly discontented citizens.
Nevertheless, the UN have mainly discussed four broad issues on the rights of child, such as, child soldiers, child labor, sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. Finally, the UN adopted various treaties regulating childrens’ rights. With regards to sovereignty and diversity in international human rights areas, NGOs can substitute state’s roles and have in fact contributed to campaign for its implementation.
In regional dimension, most of international documents to protect the rights of child reflect similar ideal and have same provisions to regulate them. There is, however, huge discrepancy in the issues to focus on. In the third world, children’s sexual exploitation, labour are urgent problems to solve, meanwhile the adoption of child and child abuse mainly discussed in EU and other developed countries.
The UN is not a utopian realm above politics, and the political character of human rights implementation is unavoidable. The politics of human rights is not, however, always harmful to human rights, for governments may raise genuine human - rights issues from political motives, and, when political motives lead to a narrow and selective concern for human rights, appeals are sometimes made to human - rights principles that can be applied more widely.
It is common to say that human rights establish ‘minimum standards’ of good government. As a first step to protect children’s rights in international laws, at least each nation should enforce international norms in there domestic laws. In regards to human rights areas, implementing the international laws more severly conflicts to sovereignty matters. Thus in children’s rights as protecting minorities of international laws, we appeal to public the opinion of international society and adopt to their domestic laws affirmatively.