Christianity's Mixed Contributions to Children's Rights: Traditional Teachings, Modern Doubts

(CRC) is a landmark in the modern international protection of children's rights. Adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1989, its fifty-four articles and two Optional Protocols set out a lengthy catalogue of rights for children. The CRC bans all discrimination against children, including on grounds of their birth status. It provides children with rights to life; to a name, a social identity, and the care and nurture of both parents; to education, health care, recreation, rest, and play; to freedom of association, expression, thought, conscience, and religion; and to freedom from neglect or negligent treatment, from physical and sexual abuse, from cruel and inhumane treatment, and from compulsory military service.