The body of literature on international human rights has grown tremendously in the last three decades or so. The two books under review here expand this body of literature and aim to contribute to our understanding of the development and growth of human rights regimes—systems of norms, rules, and decision-making procedures—in two different but related areas: The volume edited by Mark Ensalaco and Linda Majka deals with the rights of the child; George Kent's work focuses on the right to food, or, more precisely, on what he calls the right to adequate food.

While the two volumes address certain common issues to which we shall return in a moment, they grew out of different concerns and experiences. Children's Human Rights grew out of an international symposium on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was held at the University of Dayton in March 2001. The substantive chapters of the book were written originally for the symposium. One of the most impressive things about the volume is that it is truly an interdisciplinary enterprise, with scholars in the social sciences, law, education, and public administration taking part in the symposium and writing chapters. In contrast, Freedom from Want grew out of Kent's earlier research and writing on the political economy of hunger and the place of children in the international political economy. Like his earlier work, this new effort provides a good conceptual scheme—particularly regarding the historical and philosophical foundations of the right to adequate food and the ways and means of implementing the right—which other human rights scholars could use in their research and writing on other specific rights.

These differences aside, readers of the two books would find that they cover certain common issues and problems that make them interesting companion pieces, even if they are not necessarily of comparable quality in all respects. Both provide coverage of the historical context in which the debate and discussion over the meaning of the rights under consideration have taken place, and these parts of the books throw light on the status of the rights of the child and the right to adequate food, respectively, in international law. Clearly, as the volume by Ensalaco and Majka shows, the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by the United Nations General Assembly in November 1989 was a defining moment in the history of the development of international norms and rules regarding children. We know that international documents proclaiming or affirming the rights of the child date back at least as far as the League of Nations period. But the Convention established more clearly than any other instrument a truly international legal regime. The Convention entered into force in September 1990, less than one year after its adoption, and it then quickly became the most widely ratified of all human rights treaties. In fact, by July 2006, it had been ratified by 192 parties. Only two of the current UN member states—Somalia and the United States—have not ratified it.

The widespread acceptance of the Convention has made it the principal source of international human rights norms and rules regarding children. Although several contributions in the Ensalaco and Majka volume make and discuss this point, the best one was written by Ursula Kilkelly, who shows that the Convention has set standards that have been and/or could be useful in advancing children's rights by international courts (such as the European and Inter-American human rights courts) and domestic courts. Indeed, her comprehensive analysis of numerous cases in which courts have grappled with children's rights in an international law framework makes her contribution one of the high points of the volume.

There is no international legal regime comparable to the Convention on the Rights of the Child regarding the right to adequate food. But in his book, Kent shows that the provisions of various global and regional international instruments (e.g., the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child)—as well as the conclusions of many international meetings and conferences, and the operating principles of numerous international governmental and nongovernmental organizations—combine to establish a right to adequate food. His impressive and comprehensive coverage and analysis of these developments make the several chapters in which they are addressed—especially Chapters 1 through 7—required reading for human rights specialists.

Another important issue also addressed in both volumes is the matter of the implementation of the international norms and rules regarding the rights they are concerned with, and this is done mainly through the use of illustrative case studies. The mere elaboration of international human rights standards does not, of course, mean that respect for the rights will necessarily be achieved. Indeed, as the research in these two volumes demonstrates, action by individual states is very important so far as the implementation of human rights is concerned. Thus, despite the widespread ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the state of millions of children throughout the world remains deplorable and depressing. Several cases studies in the Ensalaco and Majka volume do a wonderful job of illustrating this point. Jaro Bilocerkowycz provides an especially good and comprehensive analysis of sexual trafficking in postcommunist Europe, looking at the causes and evolution of the problem and how concern for the problem—or the lack of it—among governments has played out since the early 1990s. Richard Maclure and Melvin Sotelo present the results of a fascinating case study of children's rights in Nicaragua, demonstrating the need for effective collaboration among many groups to improve the lot of children—and what happens when that necessary collaboration is missing. Laura Leming and Raymond Fitz provide a good companion piece to the Maclure and Sotelo chapter in their study of the problems that arise in addressing the plight of children on the “margins”—those without access to power and economic resources, as well as those who are literally on the margins in terms of geographical location. Rosemary Saari and Jeffrey Shook provide an excellent analysis of U.S. adherence to a large number of international conventions and other agreements that are relevant to juveniles. And Linda and Theo Majka present an compelling case study of child farm workers in the United States.

Kent uses a mix of case studies and thematic chapters in a part of his book that he labels “Applications.” Here, we have chapters that examine the actions of courts in India to compel the distribution of food from food stocks to the hungry; the efforts of groups like Citizenship Action and political parties in Brazil to integrate the right to adequate food in the political process in the late 1990s; and the opposite movement so far as the United States is concerned, that is, the history of denial that there is any such thing as a “right” to food recognized by the United States. In addition to these case studies, several chapters examine the right to adequate food in the context of groups (e.g., infants, victims of HIV, refugees) or thematic issues (e.g., water and trade).

Of the two volumes, Freedom from Want is qualitatively the most impressive. It is well organized and written, and Kent's arguments regarding the right to adequate food as an international human right are backed up with extensive documentation and persuasively laid out. One might have wished for more actual case studies, rather that the mix of case studies and themes that Kent included in the “Applications” part of the book. At least a common standard of approach, or a set of common questions or issues to be dealt with, should have been employed to give the chapters a more even quality. But these are relatively minor flaws, and they are outweighed by the high quality of the scholarship that pervades the book as a whole. Indeed, this is a book that should be read by the community of international human rights scholars in the broadest sense, not just those who are in political science but in the social sciences and humanities generally. It could be used as required reading in courses and seminars on human rights and on international organization that are offered to advanced undergraduate and graduate students.

Children's Human Rights also makes a good contribution to the literature on human rights, specifically regarding the rights of the child. However, there are a couple of disappointing features of the volume that detract from its potential value. One is that there is virtually nothing that looks at the work of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, which functions as the main implementing mechanism under the framework of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. It is hard to imagine how concern for the implementation of the Convention would not lead to substantial discussion of the work of the Committee. Like other committees that function under other human rights conventions, the Committee on the Rights of the Child has faced serious problems in fulfilling its mandate. Compliance with the terms of the Convention is, of course, a major issue, and a major concern of scholars in the field of human rights. But while quite a few of the chapters address issues related to substantive compliance, that is, to compliance by states with the established norms and rules regarding the rights of the child, virtually no attention is given to procedural compliance, that is, to compliance with the procedural requirements of the Convention. The Convention requires that state parties submit good and timely periodic reports, but the vast majority of these reports are not submitted at all, are submitted late, or are of very poor quality. Despite the lack of compliance with this requirement, a substantial backlog of reports has yet to be dealt with. Some attention should have been devoted to this problem. Indeed, one of the chapters could have been devoted exclusively to the work of the Committee, the problems it faces, and its prospects for the future.

A second weakness of the volume has to do with the uneven quality of the chapters and with gaps in the coverage of issues and problems related to children's rights, the inclusion of which would have made for a fuller and more comprehensive treatment. To be sure, such problems often arise in interdisciplinary projects of this nature. For one, funds are obviously not unlimited, which lack could have a substantial impact on the quantity as well as quality of participants. And some participants may not be able to follow through on publication commitments. But even with this in mind, it would have been good to see more attention devoted to some of the serious problems covered in the book. For example, there could have been more depth in the treatment of cases in which child soldiers have been used and the related problem of reintegrating these soldiers into their respective societies. Moreover, more could have been done on the issue of the economic exploitation of children, especially of children in the so-called Third World.

Despite these shortcomings, on balance this book is a valuable addition to the literature on the rights of the child. Some of the chapters, as noted, will be of interest to a broad range of scholars and intelligent readers who are interested in human rights. In addition, the interdisciplinary nature of the research enterprise should help to attract a broad audience. The book would be a fine addition to a reading list in human rights seminars and courses offered at the graduate and advanced undergraduate levels.