The Rights of children and standards to which all governments must aspire to in realising these rights for all children, are most concisely and fully articulated in one International Human Right treaty Convention on Rights of Child, which is the most universally accepted Human Rights Instrument. It was acceded to, by India on 11.12.1992, whereby she has committed herself to protecting and ensuring child rights and has agreed to hold her Government accountable for this commitment before International community. It ensures that children everywhere benefit from renewed efforts to ensure the fullest achievement of their right to life, health care, education, nutrition, basic standards of living and to special measures for their protection when they are threatened by violence, abuse or exploitation. Salient features of the major conventions dealing with the above issues are reproduced herein below:

Some of the relevant provisions are reproduced herein below:

i) Article 1 – A child means every human being below the age of 18 years unless, under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier.

ii) Article 2 – Freedom from discrimination on any ground including sex, religion ethnic or social origin, birth or other status.

iii) Article 3 – In all actions concerning children…the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration.

iv) Article 6 – Maximum support for survival and development.

v) Article 12 – the right to express his or her views freely in all matters affecting the child, in accordance with age and maturity.

vi) Article 19 – The right to protection from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse while in the care or parents, guardian or any other person.

vii) Article 24 – The right to health and to access health services; and to be protected from harmful traditional practices.

viii) Article 28 and 29 – The right to education on the basis of equal opportunity.

ix) Article 34 – The right to protection from all forms of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse.

x) Article 35 – The right to protection from abduction, sale or trafficking.

xi) Article 36 – The right to protection from all forms of exploitation prejudicial to any aspect of the child’s welfare.

(a) Men and women of full age….have the right to marry and found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.

(b) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending parties. Similar provisions are included in 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights.

III. The 1956 Supplementary Convention on ‘Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, Institutions and Practices similar to Slavery’ includes in the institutions and practices similar to slavery – Article 1:

Article 1(c) – Any institution or practice whereby a woman, without the right to refuse, is promised or given in marriage on payment of a consideration in money or in kind to her parents, guardian, family….

(a) No marriage shall be legally entered into without the full and free consent of both parties, such consent to be expressed by them in person....as prescribed by law.

(b) State Parties to the convention shall specify a minimum age for marriage ("not less than 15 years" according to the non – binding recommendation accompanying this Convention). No marriage shall be legally entered into by any person under this age, except where a competent authority has granted a dispensation as to age, for serious reasons, in the interests of the intending spouses…

Article 16 (1) prescribes equally for men and women:

(a) The same right to enter into marriage

(b) The same right freely to choose a spouse and to enter into marriage only with their free and full consent

Article 16 (2) states: The betrothal and the marriage of a child shall have no legal effect, and all necessary action, including legislation, shall be taken to specify a minimum age for marriage.

VI. The International Labour Organisation’s Convention on the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour:

The Indian law is very strict; it says that non-payment of minimum wages amounts to bonded labour - a provision that is not found in any international Convention. In 1999 Convention was ratified by India. The Convention defines "the worst forms of child labour" as comprising:

(a) all forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, such as the sale and trafficking of children, forced or compulsory labour, debt bondage and serfdom;

(b) the use, procuring or offering of a child for prostitution for the production of pornography or for pornographic performances;

(c) the use, procuring or offering of a child for illicit activities, in particular for the production and trafficking of drugs as defined in the relevant international treaties;

(d) work which, by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out, is likely to jeopardize the health, safety or morals of children." This is in consonance with the recent trend among UN organisations (for example the WHO) to directly involve human rights in standard - setting, and the creation of binding obligations for states in their area of operation.

VII. The UNICEF Report dated March 2001:

This report gives a number of other International Human Rights instruments which lay down norms to be applied to marriage, covering issues of age, consent, equality within marriage, and the personal rights of women. In Sri Lanka where the average age of marriage has traditionally been low, it is now about 25 years. The country’s success in raising the marriageable age has been driven by the introduction of legislative reforms that require that all marriages be registered and the consent of both the partners to be recorded.