The Challenges of Coping with Intellectual Property Regime Implementation: Observations on Canada and Vietnam

On November 20, 1989, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Rights ofthe Child [hereinafter \u27the Convention\u27]. It was ratified by the requisite 20 nations and came into force within one year, in September 1990. Indeed, as Lawrence J. LeBlanc notes \u27The rapid and widespread acceptance of the Convention on the Rights of Child is impressive and remarkable. No other specialized United Nations human rights convention has been accepted so quickly and with such apparent enthusiasm.\u27[FN2] Canada was part of this enthusiasm, signing the Convention on May 28, 1990 and ratifying it on December 13, 1991. An area of the Convention that has been seldom discussed is its provision of information rights for children. One traditional institution providing information and entertainment to children is the public library. This article will examine the environment within which Canada\u27s public librarians serve children and ask whether current practices in Canadian public libraries support Canada\u27s obligations to children under the Convention or whether the practices of librarians in Canada\u27s public libraries actually undermine Canada\u27s efforts to adhere to the Convention. The article discusses the challenge of reconciling children\u27s information rights in Canada under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms with those set forth in the Convention. The article then considers whether those practices of Canada\u27s librarians that appear to undermine Canada\u27s efforts to implement the provisions of the Convention are so deeply ingrained that statutory action is required to alter them