Children’s Rights

In most countries (including Mexico), there has been a predominant paternalistic, guardian-type protection of children’s rights; in recent decades a new focus has been gaining ground which recognizes boys and girls’ status as people, human beings with their own rights inherent in this category. According to the author of this essay, the approval and ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), in effect since 1990, is both the culmination of around 65 years of national and international efforts to protect children’s rights, and a point of departure for promoting and achieving their integral development. The author examines the rights protected by the CRC and highlights the need to create mechanisms and instruments that convert the letter of these rights into actions, attitudes and behaviors, as well as concrete, daily custom.