Discourse Analysis of the International Literature Relating to the Historical Background and Guiding Principles of Convention on the Rights of Children

Zia Ullah Akhunzada, Basharat Hussain and Farhat Ullah

Abstract
The endorsement of the UN Convention on the Rights of Children
(UNCRC) 1989 has made child rights a major area of study during the past
years. Academic work on child rights is presently unthinkable without
taking into account the CRC as the carrier of the child rights debate. The
article provides an account of those developments and movements which
led to the adoption of CRC. By means of a discourse analysis of
international literature, the article maps the academic discourse on
children‟s rights. The article has enlisted the four guiding principles of
CRC and offered a detail description of all the four guiding principles
which are equality, best interest of the child, life, survival & development
and participation. The article has further explained the postulates of each
guiding principle and its importance for children.

Keywords: Children, Rights, Convention