CELEBRATING 20 YEARS OF OPAC
2020 marks 20 years since the adoption by the UN General Assembly of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict (OPAC). Ratified by 170 States, OPAC is an indispensable complement to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989). To celebrate this milestone, the Center for Children’s Rights Studies and the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child planned a commemorative conference in Geneva on September 29, 2020. Regrettably this was cancelled due to the pandemic related public health situation. This led us to ask several of the distinguished speakers to record brief statements instead and to post them on this dedicated website.