Chapter 2 • The Major Universal Human Rights Instruments and the Mechanisms for Their Implementation So far, attempts at drafting an additional protocol for the purpose of creating an individual complaints procedure have proved unsuccessful. The implementation mechanism under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights consists exclusively of a reporting system. 2.3 The Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989, and its two Optional Protocols, 2000 Although children are also protected by the general treaties for the protection of the human being, it was considered important to elaborate a convention dealing specifically with children’s particular needs. After ten years of work, the Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted by the General Assembly in 1989 and entered into force on 2 September 1990. On 8 February 2002 there were 191 States parties to the Convention. Within just a few years of its adoption the Convention had been almost universally ratified, and has begun to have an important impact on the decisions of domestic courts. The guiding principle throughout this Convention is that “in all actions concerning children ... the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration” (art. 3(1); emphasis added).45 The Convention establishes a Committee on the Rights of the Child “for the purpose of examining the progress made by States Parties in achieving the realization of the obligations undertaken in the ... Convention” (art. 43(1)). On 25 May 2000, the General Assembly further adopted two Optional Protocols to the Convention, namely, the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, and the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict. The first Optional Protocol entered into force on 18 January 2002, that is, three months after the deposit of the tenth instrument of ratification or accession (art. 14(1)), while the second Optional Protocol entered into force on 13 February 2002 after the same conditions had been fulfilled (art. 10(1)).46 As of 8 February 2002 these Protocols had respectively 17 and 14 ratifications. 2.3.1 The undertakings of the States parties As in the two International Covenants, the States parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child generally undertake to “respect and ensure the rights set forth in the ... Convention to each child within their jurisdiction without discrimination of any kind” (art. 2(1)), and to “take all appropriate measures to ensure that the child is 45 For an extensive explanation of the meaning of the terms of the Convention, see Implementation Handbook for the Convention on the Rights of the Child, prepared for UNICEF by Rachel Hodgkin and Peter Newell, UNICEF, 1998, 681 pp. (hereinafter referred to as UNICEF Implementation Handbook). 46 See text and date of entry into force of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography: http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu2/dopchild.htm and, as to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict: http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu2/6/protocolchild.htm Human Rights in the Administration of Justice: A Manual on Human Rights for Judges, Prosecutors and Lawyers 43