How do we know that governments care about the language of resolutions at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights? Because they lobby so hard against them.
The U.S. attempted to weaken language prohibiting the juvenile death penalty in a resolution on children's rights earlier this year's session of the Commission, but Human Rights Watch successfully pressed other governments to resist this effort.
Human Rights Watch also successfully pressed for stronger language condemning the execution of juvenile offenders in the death penalty resolution approved at this year's session of the Commission. The resolution calls on those states that retain the death penalty not to impose it on persons below the age of 18.
Unlike past years, the resolution does not couch this demand in terms of the treaties that states have ratified, notably the Convention on the Rights of the Child (to which the United States is not a party). This is a further affirmation that the execution of juvenile offenders is absolutely prohibited under international law and is yet another indication of the overwhelming international concensus against the execution of juvenile offenders.
Read more about Human Rights Watch's work on children's rights at https://www.hrw.org/children/
