UK
Reservations
entered
on
ratification, 16 December
December 1991
5 December 1991
His Excellency Mr Perez de Cuellar
Secretary General of the United Nations
Sir
Foreign & Commonwealth
Office
London SWEN 2AH
I have the honour to refer to the Instrument. of Ratification by the United Kingdom of the Convention on the Rights of the Child adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 20 November 1989, and to make the following reservations and declarations on behalf of the United Kingdom :
(a)
The United Kingdom interprets the Convention as applicable only following a live birth.
(b) The United Kingdom interprets the references in the Convention to 'parents' to mean only those persons who, as a matter of national law, are treated as parents. This includes cases where the law regards a child as having only one parent, for example where a child has been adopted by one person only and in certain cases where a child is conceived other than as a result of sexual intercourse by the woman who gives birth to it and she is treated as the only parent.
(c) The United Kingdom reserves the right to apply such legislation, in so far as it relates to the entry into, stay in and departure from the United Kingdom of those who do not have the right under the law of the United Kingdom to enter and remain in the United Kingdom, and to the acquisition and possession of citizenship, as it may deem necessary from time to time.
(d) Employment legislation in the United Kingdom does not treat persons under 18, but over the school-leaving age as children, but as "young people". Accordingly the United Kingdom reserves the right to continue to apply Article 32 subject to such employment legislation.
(e)
Where at any time there is a lack of suitable accommodation or adequate facilities for a particular
/individual...