The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) : a Maltese perspective.

Abstract

"The well-being of children requires political action at the highest level. We are determined to take that action. We ourselves make a solemn commitment to give high priority to the rights of children." So said the leaders of the world's nations at the World Summit for Children held on the 30th of September, 1990 at the United Nations in New York, the largest gathering of world leaders in history. Heads of state and government and other leading politicians gathered to pledge themselves to improve the lives of children in their own countries and throughout the globe. On that same day, Malta ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child thus becoming one of the States Parties to it. Since then nearly a decade has passed and during these years children's rights have increasingly received more attention in Malta. Thus, my aim in this thesis was to discover the extent to which the promises made upon ratification of the Convention have been translated into action. For this purpose I divided the different rights recognised by the Convention into four categories each being tackled in a different chapter-: • General principles of the Convention; • Civil rights and freedoms; • The family environment; and, • Basic Health and welfare. From each category I selected a number of provisions which, in my opinion, deserved most attention and in each case I engaged in an analysis of the relevant Maltese legislation and judgements, comparing and contrasting such to foreign legislation and judgements. Through this exercise I was able to assess the extent to which Maltese child law is in conformity with the obligations laid down by the Convention. This task has led me through a maze of legislative provisions in order to identify relevant legislation which affects children's lives. This exercise had to be done, in that Malta does not, as yet, have a single statute which gathers within it provisions governing different areas and aspects of children's lives. One fact that surprised me whilst I was conducting my research with respect to judicial decisions, was that no reference has ever been made by the Courts to the provisions of the Convention. In my opinion, this international instrument should be given more importance in that it provides the blueprint for accomodating children's special needs and of recognising their rights.