Adolescence

the rights of adolescents or to prosecute cases of unlawfulpremature entry into adult roles such as marriage, labourand military service, when the exact age of the child oradolescent plaintiff cannot be determined.Adolescents and adolescence in theinternational arenaAlthough there is no internationally accepted definitionof adolescence, the United Nations defines adolescentsas individuals aged 10–19: in effect, those in the seconddecade of their lives. 20 This is the definition that appliesto much of the analysis and policy advocacy presented inthis report. While the term ‘adolescents’ is not mentionedin international conventions, declarations or treaties, alladolescents have rights under the Universal Declaration ofHuman Rights and other major human rights covenantsand treaties. Most of them are also covered under theConvention on the Rights of the Child, and adolescent girlsare also protected under the Convention on the Eliminationof All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW),the Beijing Platform for Action, and regional instrumentssuch as the Protocol to the African Charter on Human andPeople’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa.Defining adolescence as the second decade of an individual’slife makes it possible to collect age-based data for thepurpose of analysing this transitional period. Today, it iswidely acknowledged that adolescence is a phase separatefrom both early childhood and adulthood, a period thatrequires special attention and protection. This was not thecase for most of human history.Widespread acceptance of the importance of adolescenceis relatively recent. Indeed, many societies and communitiesstill barely demarcate the line between childhood andadulthood. Adolescents, and often even younger children,are expected to work, pay their own way and even beararms. In this sense, they are regarded as smaller, lessdevelopedadults.In other societies, however, the transition from childhoodto adulthood has been, or still is, marked by some rite ofpassage, acknowledging the moment when the individualis expected to assume the independence, responsibilities,expectations and privileges attached to full adulthood.Integral to the notion of a rite of passage is the sense thatchildhood is a separate space and time from the rest ofhuman life, one that needs to be treated with special careand consideration.Such precepts were first expressed in the internationalarena in the first half of the 20th century, through treatiesthat sought to protect children from exploitative andharmful labour. The first conventions drawn up by theInternational Labour Organization after the First WorldWar had the goal of protecting child labourers, mostof whom were over the age of 10. These included theInternational Labour Office (ILO) Convention No. 6,Night Work of Young Persons (Industry) Convention of1919, and ILO Convention No. 10, the Minimum Age(Agriculture) Convention of 1921. The first conventioncited here stipulated 16 as the age limit for work in specifiedhazardous industrial settings, while the second placedclear limits on children’s participation in public and privatework settings. Most other international legislationintroduced between the world wars did not, however,explicitly specify rights for children or adolescents asdistinct from those of adults.After the Second World War, the burgeoning movementfor children’s rights focused its attention on gaining specialrecognition for children and adolescents within the newlyformed United Nations. This was achieved in 1959 with theDeclaration of the Rights of the Child, which was significantin establishing legal provisions to safeguard children’swell-being rather than presuming that this could simply bemet under the general principles of the major human rightsinstruments. Children’s welfare, rather than their political,economic, civic and social rights, was the principal motivationbehind the push for the Declaration.Two decades later, the UN declared 1979 to be theInternational Year of the Child, and this was swiftly followedby the first International Youth Year, in 1985. Theseinitiatives raised the profile of global efforts to promoteand protect the interests of children and young people. Atthe same time, advocates for children were busy drawingup an overarching human rights treaty for children bywhich all States parties would be bound. The Conventionon the Rights of the Child, a decade in the drafting, wasfinally adopted by the United Nations General Assemblyon 20 November 1989.The treaty fulfilled all those hopes with its comprehensivenessand far-sightedness. The rights of all young childrenand adolescents under age 18 were expressed in such away as to not only protect their welfare but also give thema central place as rights holders, providing an ethical basisfor their active participation in all aspects of their lives.12THE STATE OF THE WORLD’S CHILDREN 2011