Childhood within the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals Agenda

The UN General Assembly opened the Convention on the Rights of the Child for signature in 1989. The Convention addresses child-specific needs and rights, and it requires the 196 countries that have ratified it to act in the best interests of the child as they are now bound to it by international law. While the 2018 ISA Congress in Toronto sets itself as an ideal point at which to take stock of the progress in this area, as it is the year running up to the 30^thanniversary of its Declaration. This paper then takes the more recently passed UN Sustainable Development Goals Agreement (passed in 2015), which sets out human, social and economic goals to be accomplished by 2030 and compares across the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the SDG 2030 Agenda. To what extent is there progress, and to what extent does the SDG 2030 Agenda stand to bridge the gap? This paper examines human development markers that engage metrics and goals set out within the 1989 UN Rights of the Child and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (2015-30).