16 - Rethinking Principles and Concepts

Summary

The first concept to which thought must be given is ‘child’. In 1989, the drafters of the CRC could not agree a definition and foisted upon us a compromise. The provision in Article 1 purports to define ‘child’ but fails to do so. It digs a hole with traps for the unwary, made all the more hazardous by the non-legally binding paragraph in the Preamble which tells us that the ‘child’ (note not the foetus) ‘needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth’. Article 1 defines a child as any human being under the age of eighteen (and see Freeman, 2018). It imposes a uniform closure for childhood, unless the applicable law directs otherwise.