On The Protection Of Children 's Rights In Criminal Law

In recent years, it is more and more important to protect the children’s rights, with the cases of crime against children increasing sharply. In November 1989, the Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted in United Nation’s General Assembly, and China Joint it in December 1990. According to the Convention, a child means every human being below the age of eighteen years. This paper adopts this definition of child. By analyzing the Convention, this paper discusses some basic issues on the children’s rights protection. 1.The character of the children’s rights, including its vulnerability, dependence and development. 2.the main principles of the children’s rights protection: The Principle of Best Interests of Children,Children First Principles, The Principle of Non-discrimination, The principle of children’s survival and development,The principle of respect for the views of the Child. 3. The main content of the children’s rights: the survival rights, the development rights, the rights to be protected, and the participation rights.As the last line of social defense, the Criminal Law plays a crucial role in protecting the children’s rights. The paper conducts a comprehensive summary on the Articles of the children’s rights protection in the Criminal Law, and analyzes the progresses on the children’s rights protection of the Amendment(IX) to the Criminal Law which was performed from November 1st, 2015. Firstly, on the aspect of children’s rights protection, whoring with a girl under the age of fourteen shall be dealt with as rape; the criminal object of indecency includes the boys of 14-18 years old; adding an Article of abuse the person under guardianship; the crime of abuse can be prosecuted; the crime of buying abducted and trafficked children has no exemption from investigation of criminal responsibility. Secondly, on the aspect of children’s survival and development rights, the overload and over speed of the school bus will be investigated the criminal responsibility. The paper discussed the value of these progresses deeply on the children’s rights protection.In fact, the current Criminal Law still has lots of room to be improved. According to the ideas of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, some suggestions are made in this paper. First of all, the writer suggests that the Criminal Law should define child as every citizen below the age of eighteen years. Secondly, the main principles of the children’s rights protection should be implemented. 1.The Principle of Best Interests of Children could be written as a basic principle in the Criminal Law; 2.Children First Principles should be implemented,for example in the area of sexual exploitation; 3.According to The Principle of Non-discrimination, every child should be protected equally, regardless of age and sex. Lastly, some specific suggestions are made on how to improve and perfect the Criminal Law in accordance with the main content of the children’s rights, such as the rights to be protected, the survival and development rights.