Happy Anniversary? 30 Years of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child

In recent months I have been busy editing with Beth Blue Swadener and Kylie Smith ‘The Routledge International Handbook of Young Children’s Rights’. Drawing on the work of more than 70 authors and their research across five continents, this exciting project is one among many marking the 30th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) on 20th November 2019 (Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), 1989). The breadth and richness of the contributions to ‘The Routledge International Handbook of Young Children’s Rights’ reveal some advances have been made to secure children’s rights fully across the World, but they also highlight that a great deal remains to be done, particularly in respect of the rights of children younger than eight years old. This is the case despite the United Nations (UN) Committee on the Rights of the Child General Comment 7 (GC7) assertion that young children are ‘social actors from the beginning of life’ (2005, p. 2) and the robust evidence base for the effects of early childhood experiences for outcomes across the life course (The Lancet, 2016).