Freedom from Abuse: One of the Human Rights of Children
![handle is hein.journals/udlr11 and id is 611 raw text is: FREEDOM FROM ABUSE: ONE OF THE HUMAN
RIGHTS OF CHILDREN
Cynthia Price Cohen*
I. INTRODUCTION
In celebration of the 1979 International Year of the Child, the
United Nations Commission on Human Rights was authorized by the
General Assembly to draft the Convention on the Rights of the Child.'
The purpose for this new treaty was to put into legally binding form
the ideals which had been previously articulated in the 1959 Declara-
tion of the Rights of the Child.2 Formal drafting of the substantive
articles by the Open-Ended Working Group on a draft Convention on
the Rights of the Child is nearing completion.3 During the period since
the Convention was first proposed, concern over the abuse of children
has become a matter of world-wide importance. It is imperative for the
Working Group to respond to this problem by ensuring that the final
draft of the substantive portion of the Convention on the Rights of the
Child contains an adequate proscription against every aspect of child
abuse.
II. INTERNATIONAL PROBLEM OF CHILD ABUSE
The idea that children have special needs and should be accorded
special protections is one that is relatively new. While differing levels of
criminal culpability based on age were recognized under Roman law,
and similar variations in criminal responsibility were applied under
British common law, it was not until the nineteenth century that a sys-
tematic effort was undertaken to establish distinct legal procedures for
processing accused youths or to separate convicted child criminals from
* United Nations Representative: Human Rights Internet; Research Consultant: Defense
for Children International/USA. B.A., City College of New York (1975); J.D., New York Law
School (1979); M.A., City University of New York Graduate Center (1986).
1. See U.N. Doc. A/134/424 (1979). See also Text of the Draft Convention on the Rights
of the Child adopted by the Working Group, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/1986/39, Annex 1 (1986) [here-
inafter cited as Convention]. The text of the 1986 Convention is reproduced at the end of this
article. See infra Appendix.
2. See 14 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 16), U.N. Doc. A/4054 (1959).
3. The Convention on the Rights of the Child is being drafted by Open-Ended Working
Group on a draft convention on the rights of the child under the auspices of the United Nations
Commission on Human Rights. It has met for one week each year, just prior to the annual session
of the Commission, since the International Year of the Child in 1979. See infra notes 173-90 and
accompanying text.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/udlr11&div=28&collection=journals&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Freedom from Abuse: One of the Human Rights of Children
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