Implications under the Convention on the Rights of the Child
By Yan Rong Yang
Yan Rong Yang is a third year student at Albany Law School. She is a graduate of State University of New York at Albany, magna cum laude, where she majored in political science and history. She is currently interning at the New York State Justice Center for the Protection of People with Special Needs. When she was a child, her family immigrated to the United States from China in the mid-1990s.
Yan Rong prepared this paper for Professor Anthony Farley’s course, International Child Rights.
Modernization has not only allowed for the development of technology, but also human rights. The future of each country lies in the hands of our children. Yet, even in the 21st century, we have countries like China placing a governmental limitation on our rights to reproduce. The “One-Child Policy” has been a center of many political debates, seen as an injustice to Chinese couples who wants the freedom to create more than one life. Here, rather than evaluating that injustice from the views of an adult, the One-Child policy is considered thoroughly from the rights of the child.
China has adopted the articles issued under Children’s Rights Convention (CRC), yet they have failed to obey these articles time and time again. The One-Child policy has caused difficulty for the lives of the “illegal” children. They are abandoned, ripped out of their mother’s wombs, murdered, trafficked, and discriminated against by their own government and government fearing parents.
The age and definition of a child will not change; however, what can be changed is how the policies are implemented. In order to lessen the harm that is done, or has already been done, such as the sex ratio of male to females, China needs to reconsider their responsibilities under CRC. That way, a new generation that can live without facing the effects of the harsh one-child policy.
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To read the paper, open HERE.
To read the paper, open HERE.
