Holy See and Rights of the Child
Title: The Holy See and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
Author: Kieran Tapsell
Publisher: UCANews
Date: 09DEC2025
The Holy See was one of the strongest promoters and first signatories of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted on Sept. 2, 1990. This convention is the most ratified of all the UN treaties.
Signatories are required to provide periodic reports to the Committee for the Rights of the Child every five years. The Holy See submitted its first report two years late in 1994, and its second report 16 years late in 2011. It has not submitted another report since.
There is no enforcement mechanism under the convention. As the former president of Ireland, and a canon lawyer, Mary McAleese has pointed out, the convention is meant to be a dialogue between the UN and the signatories as to how it is protecting the rights of children.
The Catholic Church is the biggest non-governmental provider of educational and welfare services to children in the world. It operates 200,000 schools across five continents, catering to some 60 million children, a majority of whom, according to the Holy See, do not profess the Catholic faith.
Each signatory was permitted to make reservations to its provisions. The Holy See made three reservations. The first protected Catholic Church teachings on abortion and contraception. The second insisted that children’s rights are to be seen through the prism of their parents. The third was that the Convention’s principles within the Vatican City State should be consistent with the Church’s canon law.
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