Abstract

The idea of the Best Interests of the Child is a novel term adopted by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. It is a fundamental component of the Convention and has been established as one of the Convention's four general principles by the Committee on the Rights of the Child. The issues and instances which are not mentioned in the Convention are also focussed on and are considered by the best interests principle. If a specific issue is not dealt with by the Convention, the principle of best interests should be considered for guidance. The goal of this paper is to define the term "best interests of the child". It is claimed that its application has always muddled instead of helped discourse on child care and family work, raising the misconception that "the best interests of the child" are obvious facts. This paper addresses using the "best interests of the child" as a driving philosophy when making decisions. The widely held belief is that the theory requires decision-makers to achieve the best result for the children involved, but that this must be balanced against other concerns. As a result, the mechanism is very wide. This theory's implementation has been criticised for undermining legal protections for children and parents and culminating in unreasonable and irrational actions. The paper contributes significantly to this explanatory debate through the use of a theoretical and literal overview of the theory, as well as its relationship to other articles of the Convention and brings out the various drawbacks of the UN CRC and provides suggestions on how these difficult situations can be prevented.

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