Religious Legal Traditions, Muslim States and the Convention on the Rights of the Child: An Essay on the Relevant UN Documentation

Along with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) has received the most religion-based reservations by Muslim states on various articles and/or on the treaty as a whole. Conversely, the Convention is the only international treaty that contains an explicit reference to Islamic law. Based on relevant United Nations documentation, this article undertakes a comparative study in order to elaborate upon ways that religious legal traditions impact upon implementation of the Convention by Muslim states. The article also examines the relevance of the reservations to the implementations of the treaty by reserving states.