Kirsten Sandberg, chair of the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child, will speak at Emory University School of Law Tuesday, Nov. 18, on progress made in international children's law since the Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted by the United Nation's General Assembly 25 years ago.

Sandberg's talk, "U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child: Working Methods and Dilemmas," will be given at Emory Law's Tull Auditorium at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 18. A question-and-answer period and a reception will follow. The lecture is free and public, but registration is required.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted by the United Nations in 1989. While the United States played a role in drafting the convention, and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Madeleine Albright signed it in 1995, the United States is one of only two U.N. Member Nations that have not ratified the Convention, along with Somalia.

"The Convention is an international landmark for children's rights, and it is troubling that after 25 years, politics has blocked its ratification by the United States," said Robert W. Woodruff Professor of Law Martha Fineman, an international authority in the field. "We are honored by professor Sandberg's visit, and look forward to hearing about the challenges and progress thus far, and the future of the convention."

The committee is a body of 18 independent experts that monitors implementation of the convention by its state parties. It also monitors implementation of two optional protocols to the convention, on involvement of children in armed conflict and sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.

Sandberg is a law professor at the University of Oslo, in the Department of Public and International Law.

The event is co-sponsored by Emory Law, Vulnerability and the Human Condition Initiative, The Feminism and Legal Theory Project, Emory Institute for Developing Nations, and Barton Child Law and Policy Center.