Today, 193 countries – including all EU Member States – are party to the CRC, making it the most widely ratified international human rights convention. The United States, South Sudan and Somalia are the only UN countries not to have ratified the CRC to date. For a complete list of signatories, please visit the UN Treaty Collection.

There are also two optional protocols to the Convention, one addressing the rights of children in armed conflict and the other addressing the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. A third optional protocol on a communications/complaints mechanism for children and the organisations working with them will open for signature in 2012.