Становлення та розвиток міжнародних стандартів захисту прав дитини в умовах збройного конфлікту

The article presents the results of scientific research on a comprehensive analysis of the process of formation and development of international standards for the protection of children’s rights from the 1900s to the present day. The author establishes that the relevance and importance of conducting a timely study of the issues chosen by the authors of the article is due to the acuteness, intensity and nature of modern armed conflicts, in which minors are involved to cover up military operations, direct participation in armed conflict, as well as to commit exploitation, physical, sexual and psychological violence. The peculiarity of this work is due to the fact that in the existing scientific studies published in recent years in domestic publications, the analysis of international standards for the protection of children’s rights was carried out in a fragmented manner and was not comprehensive. Instead, the authors of this article focus on the gradual evolution of international standards, starting with the legal acts of the 1900s and up to the present day. To confirm the importance of the chosen research topic, the authors of the article additionally provide relevant statistical information presented in Ukraine at the end of 2024. Based on a detailed study of the available information sources, the author establishes that the concept of child rights should be understood as a set of child’s capabilities recognised in international law and national legislation, which are determined by certain physical and psychological characteristics of a child’s development, are based on the generally recognised principles of natural law, are guaranteed by the State and other subjects of law, and have a special mechanism for their implementation and protection. At the same time, Ukrainian legislation regulates children’s rights from the perspective that these rights are primarily considered in the system of general human rights, and only later - as a separate system that takes into account the specifics of the development of minors and underage persons. It is determined that the universally recognised list of the main acts defining international standards of child protection includes the Hague Convention relative to the Laws and Customs of War on Land of 1907, the Declaration of the Rights of the Child of 1959, the four Geneva Conventions of 1949, its two Additional Protocols of 1977, the Convention on the Rights of the Child itself of 1989, and its Optional Protocol of 2000.