The Convention on the Rights of the Child, established a legal and ethical instrument for promoting and protecting the rights of children. The International Community responded enthusiastically to the Convention, and that type of broad participating "symbolizes something very special about the Convention, something that gives it unique importance and authority."

Carol Bellamy with UNICEF believes that this support for the Convention suggests that human rights, particularly child rights, have gained a growing importance in the International Community.

However, the existing legal standards are painfully inadequate for protecting children's rights. First, the United States, still one of the world's superpowers, has failed to give full support to the efforts to keep children from being soldiers. This makes the United States the only recognized country in the world besides Somalia that has failed to ratify the Convention. Despite the U.S.'s failure to ratify it, the Convention was still the "single most...
[ View Full Essay]