English
The adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by the United Nations General Assembly in 1989 is generally seen as the culmination of a process that has gradually led to the granting of rights to children. The aim of this paper is to show how children’s rights are based on ideas that preceeded the adoption of international instruments, and how they continued to evolve throughout their genesis and dissemination. In so doing, it highlights the aspects of rupture and continuity, as well as the controversies that characterise these processes.