Human rights and fundamental freedoms have been very important throughout the
history of mankind. This is proven by the various declarations and conventions
devoted to human rights and fundamental freedoms.
The rights in the general human rights conventions are also applicable to children but
they do not take into enough consideration that these children form a special group
with their own specific needs. Children’s dependency on adults put them in a
vulnerable position.
The rights of children had been recognized separately since 1924 in the Declaration of
Geneva which was adopted by the League of Nations. On November 20, 1959 the
General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Declaration on the Rights of the
Child. These declarations contained several rights of children but they were not in
reality binding.
In 1979, the year proclaimed by the UN to be the International year of the child, a
proposal was put on the table to draft a convention specifically dealing with the rights
of children as well as with guaranteeing and protecting those rights.
The General Assembly of the UN adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child
(CRC) on November 20, 1989.
According to the latest update on November 1, 2006 all the 192 UN member states
were party to this Convention.1
Suriname signed the CRC on January 26, 1990 and subsequently deposited its
instrument of ratification on March 1, 1993. According to article 49 paragraph 2, the
Convention entered into force for Suriname on March 31, 1993. (See annex A) The
CRC was published on November 19, 1999 in the Treaties Bulletin of Suriname 1999
no. 1.
The CRC is the first human rights instrument that contains both civil and political
rights as well as economic, social and cultural rights.