Background Information on the United Nations Special Session on Children
From May 8-10, government and UN officials, child rights’ advocates, and children from around the globe convergd at the United Nations for the General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on Children. This extraordinary gathering marked the first such meeting since the landmark 1990 World Summit on Children (World Summit) at which delegates declared their governments’ "joint commitment…to give every child a better future."1 The Plan of Action for Implementing the World Declaration on the Survival, Protection and Development of Children, which emerged from the World Summit, recognized the intrinsic link between the advancement of women’s rights, including their reproductive rights, and the well-being of the world’s children.2
One additional outcome of the World Summit was that it catalyzed government support for the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), including its provisions encompassing the reproductive rights and health of adolescents. Although the CRC had been adopted by the UN General Assembly in November 1989, it entered into force (and thus became legally binding) in September 1990, during the World Summit.
The CRC established that adolescents have a right to health, including a right to access comprehensive reproductive and sexual health services, education, and information, in accordance with their best interests and evolving capacities.3 These principles were reaffirmed and expanded upon at subsequent UN Conferences, including the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo (ICPD), at which countries were called upon to "protect and promote the rights of adolescents to reproductive health education, information, and care…."4
Despite the clear advances adolescent reproductive rights made throughout the 1990s—beginning with the CRC, the World Summit on Children, and continuing with the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo (ICPD), the Beijing Women’s Conference and their respective 5–year reviews—several conservative governments, including the Bush administration of the U.S., the Vatican, and the conservative group of nations known as Some Developing Countries (SDC) which is led by Sudan, attempted, but failed, to roll-back many of these earlier gains.
Background on the Negotiations
1 See World Declaration on the Survival, Development and Protection of Children, United Nations World Summit for Children, New York, United States, Sept. 30, 1990, 1. This document can be found at http://www.unicef.org/wsc/declare.htm.
2 Id. 12-14.
3 See Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted Nov. 20, 1989, G.A. Res. 44/25, U.N. GAOR, 44th Sess., Supp. No. 49, at 24, U.N. Doc. A/44/49 (1989) (entered into force Sept. 2, 1990) [hereinafter CRC]. Article 24 of CRC recognizes "the right of the child to the enjoyment of the highest possible standard of health" and sets forth governments’ obligation to develop preventive health care, guidance for parents and family planning education and services.
4 See CENTER FOR REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS, Cairo + 5: Assessing U.S. Support for Reproductive Health at Home and Abroad 9 (1999) [Cairo+5: Assessing U.S. Support for RH], quoting ICPD Para. 7.46.
UN Committee Calls on Russia to Improve Teen Access to Reproductive Health
