The term "party" refers to a State that gives its explicit consent to be bound by the treaty. As of 12 July 2022, 196 countries are
parties to the UNCRC treaty (some with stated reservations or interpretations). Every member of the United Nations except the
United States has either ratified or accepted the rights articulated for the child under eighteen or below the age of majority in that state. The most recent ratifications of the convention were by
Cook Islands,
Niue, the
State of Palestine, and the
Holy See.
Somalia's domestic ratification finished in January 2015 and the instrument was deposited with the United Nations in October 2015.
Taiwan incorporated the convention into domestic law on 20 November 2014, and signed an Instrument of Accession to the CRC on 16 May 2016. All successor states of Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic and Slovakia) and Yugoslavia (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia) made declarations of succession to the treaty and currently apply it. The convention does not apply in the territories of
Tokelau,
Akrotiri and Dhekelia and
Gibraltar.
Guernsey was also excluded until 2020.
Azerbaijan Azerbaijan ratified the convention on 21 July 1992. In terms of the ratification of the convention, a significant number of laws, decrees and resolutions were approved in Azerbaijan by the President and the Cabinet of Ministers focusing on the development of the child welfare system. As required under the UNCRC, Bangladesh enacted the
Children Act, 2013 (amended 2018), replacing the Children Act 1974 to provide comprehensive legal protection for children. The Act was explicitly drafted with regard to UNCRC principles, including juvenile justice, custody, and child welfare, though implementation gaps remain. Bangladesh ratified ILO Convention No 182 on the worst forms of child labour and later ratified Minimum Age Convention No 138 in March 2022. Despite legal frameworks, juvenile justice remains problematic where the minimum age of criminal responsibility is still nine years, below the UNCRC-recommended 12 years. Child Development Centres (JDCs) established under the Children Act are few, overcrowded, and frequently accused of torture and inhumane treatment. Although every district is meant to have a separate Children's Court, most areas still rely on overburdened Women and Children Tribunals with no dedicated courtrooms. In response, Bangladesh partnered with UNICEF to develop a national child protection system aligned with UNCRC standards through its Child-Friendly Justice initiative. On 24 March 2025, UNICEF welcomed government plans to establish separate Children's Courts nationwide as part of implementing the Children Act and aligning with international norms. Civil society and international monitors continue to call for stronger enforcement and resources to fully realize child protection commitments.
Canada Canada became a signatory to the convention on 28 May 1990 Youth criminal laws in Canada underwent major changes resulting in the
Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) which went into effect on 1 April 2003. The Act specifically refers to Canada's different commitments under the convention. The convention was influential in the
administrative law decision of
Baker v Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration), although the Supreme Court of Canada ultimately held that "Its provisions [...] have no direct application within Canadian law".
India India ratified UNCRC on 11 December 1992, agreeing in principle to all articles but with certain reservations on issues relating to child labor., but there is no outright ban on child labour. The practice is generally permitted in most industries except those deemed "hazardous", for which minimum ages apply. while the
NGO Save the Children in a statement of 2016 cites a study by the
Campaign Against Child Labour that estimates the number of child laborers in India at 12.7 million. In 2016, the Child and Adolescent Labour (Amendment) Act was introduced, which prohibited children's economic employment under the age of 14 years and the employment of adolescents (14–17 years of age) in hazardous occupations. Some exceptions exist for children under 14 —they can aid in the family enterprise and participate in the entertainment industry. It must not harm their school education and they must not work between 7 p.m. and 8 a.m.
Iran Iran has adhered to the convention (except for alleged child slavery) since 1991 and ratified it in the
Parliament in 1994. Upon ratification, Iran made the following reservation: "If the text of the Convention is or becomes incompatible with the domestic laws and Islamic standards at any time or in any case, the Government of the Islamic Republic shall not abide by it." Iran has also signed both optional protocols which relate to the special protection of children against involvement in armed conflict and the sale of children and sexual exploitation. Although Iran is a state party to the convention, international human rights organisations and foreign governments routinely denounced executions of Iranian child offenders as a violation of the treaty. But on 10 February 2012, Iran's parliament changed the controversial law of executing juveniles. In the new law, the age of 18 (solar year) would be considered the minimum age for adulthood and offenders under this age will be sentenced under a separate law. Based on the previous law, which was revised, girls at the age of 9 and boys at 15 (lunar year, 11 days shorter than a solar year) were fully responsible for their crimes. During the
2026 Iran war, Rahim Nadali, an
IRGC official in Tehran, announced the launch of the initiative "For Iran" which recruits 12 year olds into the
Basij militia for them to assist in manning "operational patrols" and checkpoints, as well as providing logistical support and performing other duties. This move contradicts Iran's commitment to abstain from the use of children in military activities under the Convention on the Rights of the Child. However, Nadali justified to move stating "Given that the age of those coming forward has dropped and they are asking to take part, we lowered the minimum age to 12". In response to criticisms expressed in the 1998 review by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva, the Irish government established the office of Ombudsman for Children. It drew up a national children's strategy. In 2006, following concerns expressed by the committee that the wording of the Irish Constitution does not allow the State to intervene in abuse cases other than in very exceptional cases, the Irish government undertook to amend the constitution to make a more explicit commitment to children's rights.
Israel Israel ratified the convention in 1991. In 2010, UNICEF criticized the country for its failure to create a government-appointed commission on children's rights or adopt a national children's rights strategy or program to implement various Israeli laws addressing children's rights. The report criticizes Israel for holding that the convention does not apply in the West Bank and for defining Palestinians under the age of 16 in the occupied territories as children, even though Israeli law defines a child as being under 18, in line with the convention. A contemporaneous report by the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development found that Israel's investment in children is below the international average. The actual investment had fallen between 1995 and 2006. In 2012, the United Nations
Committee on the Rights of the Child criticized Israel for its bombing attacks on Palestinians in the
Gaza Strip, stating, "Destruction of homes and damage to schools, streets and other public facilities gravely affect children" and called them "gross violations of the convention on the Rights of the Child, its Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict and international humanitarian law". It also criticized Palestinian rocket attacks from Gaza on southern Israel, which traumatized Israeli children, calling on all parties to protect children.
New Zealand New Zealand ratified the convention on 6 April 1993 with reservations concerning the right to distinguish between persons according to the nature of their authority to be in New Zealand, the need for legislative action on economic exploitation—which it argued was adequately protected by existing law, and the provisions for the separation of juvenile offenders from adult offenders. In 1994, the
Court of Appeal of New Zealand dismissed the suggestion that the Minister for Immigration and his department were at liberty to ignore the convention, arguing that this would imply that the country's adherence was "at least partly window-dressing". The
Children's Commissioner Act 2003 enhanced the
Children's Commissioner, giving it significantly stronger investigative powers. The Children's Commissioner is responsible for convening the UNCROC Monitoring Group, which monitors the New Zealand Government's implementation of the Children's Convention, its Optional Protocols and the Government's response to recommendations from the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. The monitoring group comprises members from the
Human Rights Commission (New Zealand),
UNICEF New Zealand, Action for Children and Youth Aotearoa and
Save the Children New Zealand. In May 2007, New Zealand passed the
Crimes (Substituted Section 59) Amendment Act 2007, which removed the defence of "reasonable force" for the purpose of correction. In its third and final vote, Parliament voted 113–8 in favour of the legislation.
Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia ratified the convention in 1996, with a reservation "with respect to all such articles as are in conflict with the provisions of Islamic law" On 20 October 2020,
Human Rights Watch said that
Saudi Arabia was seeking the death penalty against eight Saudi men who were accused of committing protest-related crimes at the age of 14 and 17. One of the boys who turned 18 in 2020 was charged with a nonviolent crime that he allegedly committed aged 9. Under the hudud – an Islamic law – prosecutors have reportedly sought the death penalty for the eight men, which if granted will make them ineligible for pardon.
South Korea South Korea ratified the Convention of the Rights of the Child in 1991. The country then created further legislation to protect children experiencing physical and sexual abuse. However, a 2002 report indicated that South Korea had not yet satisfied article 12 of the CRC and that corporal violence of children in certain settings is not prohibited. A 2017 review by the Committee on the Rights of the Child concluded that further legal protections had been enacted such as legislation against child pornography, prostitution, and the ratification of the
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. A 2017 decision by the
National Human Rights Commission of Korea ruled that
no kid zones were discriminatory, but this did not legally restrict them from existing. The decision concluded that no-kid zones conflict with a child's right to equality under the
constitution and the CRC. South Korea joined the
Hague convention on International Child Abduction in 2012, but was criticized for its repetitive pattern of non-compliance. The pattern continued even after the 2023 Special Commissioner meeting of the
Hague Conference, held in
The Hague, Netherlands, in 2023, when the shared goal was reaffirmed between
the Hague Convention and
UNCRC.
Sweden The Convention on the Rights of the Child has status as Swedish law since 1 January 2020. Also, before that, Swedish legislation was well in line with the convention and went in some cases further. It was given this status because Swedish authorities and the government thought the childs right perspective was not applied sufficiently in
Swedish social welfare decisions and law enforcement.
Thailand Upon accession to the convention on 27 March 1992, Thailand registered the following reservation: "The application of Articles 7, 22 and 29 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child shall be subject to the national laws, regulations and prevailing practices in Thailand." This reservation was withdrawn on 11 April 1997 with respect to article 29 (goals of education), on 13 December 2010 with respect to article 7 (birth registration, name, nationality, care) and finally on 30 August 2024 with respect to article 22 (refugee children). and made its first report to the Committee on the Rights of the Child in January 1995. Concerns raised by the committee included the growth in
child poverty and inequality, the extent of violence towards children, the use of custody for young offenders, the low age of criminal responsibility, and the lack of opportunities for children and young people to express views. The 2002 report of the committee expressed similar concerns, including the welfare of children in custody, unequal treatment of asylum seekers, and the negative impact of poverty on children's rights. In September 2008, the UK government decided to withdraw its reservations and agree to the convention in these respects. Although child slavery is difficult to gauge within the UK, child slaves are imported into the UK and sold. banning smacking, by abolishing the defence of "reasonable corporal punishment". The States Assembly incorporated the Convention into domestic law through the passage of the Children (Convention Rights) (Jersey) Law 2022.
United States The United States government played an active role in the drafting of the convention and signed it on 16 February 1995, but has not ratified it. It has been claimed that American opposition to the convention stems primarily from political and religious conservatives. For example,
The Heritage Foundation considers that "a civil society in which moral authority is exercised by religious congregations, family, and other private associations is fundamental to the American order," and the
Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) argues that the CRC threatens
homeschooling. Other
Christian right organizations such as
Concerned Women for America have argued that the CRC is an effort by
globalists to remove children from their religious and family contexts; Christian right figures such as John Whitehead state that it will limit
parental rights. Most notably, at the time several states permitted the execution and
life imprisonment of juvenile offenders, a direct contravention of Article 37 of the convention. The
landmark 2005
Supreme Court decision in
Roper v. Simmons declared
juvenile executions to be unconstitutional as "
cruel and unusual punishment"; in the 2012 case
Miller v. Alabama, the court held that mandatory sentences of life without the possibility of parole are unconstitutional for juvenile offenders. However, the Court issued a ruling in
Jones v. Mississippi that
Miller does not require States to make an independent finding of "permanent incorrigibility" before sentencing the juvenile to life imprisonment without parole. State laws regarding the practice of
closed adoption may also require an overhaul in light of the convention's position that children have a right to identity from birth. During his
2008 campaign for president, Senator
Barack Obama described the failure to ratify the convention as "embarrassing" and promised to review the issue; however, this action did not occur during his tenure as president. No
president of the United States has submitted the treaty to the
Senate requesting its advice and consent to ratification since the US signed it in 1995. The United States has ratified two of the
optional protocols to the convention: the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, and the Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography. ==Optional protocols==