فقه و حقوق خانواده (Feb 2016)
Reviewing of a Child's Age and its Legal Status from the Perspective of International Documents
Abstract
Article I of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted in 1989, recognizes 18 years of age to be the ranging pole between childhood and adult ratio. At the same time it allows member states to apply lesser age for the definition of the “child” age. Exceptions also exist in some articles such as Article 37 regarding criminal liability, does not allow the death penalty and life imprisonment without the possibility of release in the case of persons less than 18 years. Article 38 concerns the prohibition of countries for recruiting/ employing persons less than 15 years in armed conflicts are examples of such issues where as a certain age has been taken into consideration for children and countries are bound to follow it. The main question in the present paper is what is the age for the basis of the performance of the Member States? In accordance with the prevailing trend in the international community the child's legal age is 18 years of age, but given the existing ambiguities, it is necessary to improve the present situation and clarifying the children's rights, so that, in addition to the clarification of this ambiguity regarding the legal status of the child's age and legal conditions in its ruling, such as issues related to child labor, marriage, participation in armed conflicts and criminal responsibility be examined.
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