Imagine a time where children didn’t matter, and they were just seen as a nuisance with no purpose. Before the 1700s, in the medieval times, children were seen as miniature adults, to eventually grow up and help out their parents (Ansell, 2005, p.9). It was not until the late 190 0s where we saw a reform in favour of children, this reform was the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the child, where a draft was started in 1979 for the International year of the child and was fully completed and initiated by all states except the United States in 1989. The UNCRC was the first convention created for the sole purpose of creating and protecting the rights and lives of children. As Cohen and Naimark states it is about the “states obligation to the child”, (p.60) the UNCRC solely focuses on what rights children should have all across the globe, including, the right to shelter, to food, nurturance, the right to foster care and adoption and so forth. This important piece of document was to support and protect the needs of children, who they believed to be able to have their own rights governing them and creating the ability for them to have autonomy and be protected, far from the old ideologies. With a good deed, the UNCRC does have its critics, although the convention recognizes the right of the child it diminishes the rights and differences of each culture and how each right can affect children and their cultures differently. Those that are asking are questioning whether the
