Purpose of the Treaty

• Each country represented in the Treaty must enforce its own anti-discrimination laws to promote the rights of people under the age of 18, unless the laws of a particular country set the legal age for adulthood at or below 17. This includes child custody rights, birth name rights, privacy rights and rights pertaining to a child's freedom of thought, conscience, expression, opinion, religion and association in his or her country of origin.
  
  

Scope of Protection

• Each country has an obligation to protect refugee children, disabled children, abused children, and other vulnerable individuals under the age of 18. These children can be victims of sex trafficking, kidnappings, child labor, torture, war, drug abuse, parental abuse, or other crimes and atrocities.
  
  

Aspects of Life Preserved Under the Treaty

• Each country must ensure that every child has fair and easy access to basic services like food, clothing and housing. Moreover, each country must ensure that children have all the educational resources, health care services and mass media to help them reach their greatest physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social potential in preparation for adulthood.
  
  

Children Without Families

• Each country must ensure that children who have no families receive appropriate alternative care or institutionalization by adoptive, surrogate, or foster parents who respect a child's race, ethnic background, religion, political beliefs, language, values and customs. In addition, children whose parents do not live together have the right to stay in contact with both parents, unless a child has been abused by those parents.
  
  

Juvenile Justice

• Each country must enforce laws that protect their children from cruel or unusual punishment and unfair judicial proceedings in the event a child breaks the laws of his or her home country. Moreover, children are not to be put in prison with adults and, as a result, can not receive life or death sentences without the possibility of parole.
  
  

Countries that Have Not Ratified the Treaty

• Although the United States signed the Treaty in 1995, it has yet to ratify it as of 2011. In addition, Somalia has not ratified this Treaty as of 2011 because of its collapsed system of government, even though its transitional government has been willing to ratify it since 2009.