Canadian early learning and child care and the Convention on the Rights of the Child

This paper's starting place is with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child's assumption that child care is a right and that governments have a responsibility in ensuring that this right is achieved. The paper reviews the Canadian political and social context for child care, putting this in a historical context; reviews the current child care situation; discusses the Articles of the Convention that pertain to
early learning and child care; and concludes that Canada has not yet taken the issue of children's right to early learning and child care seriously.

This Occasional Paper is a working version of a chapter prepared for A Question of Commitment: Children's Rights in Canada (working title) edited by R. Brian Howe and Katherine Covell, Waterloo, Wilfred Laurier University Press, (expected publication, 2007).

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