United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour will launch today the Legislative History on the Convention on the Rights of the Child , a new publication that aims to become an essential research tool for children's rights advocates.

"This major study documents how the Convention on the Rights of the Child came to represent a sea change in the way the international community was prepared to address the rights of children", the High Commissioner writes in the book's preface.

The two-volume set lists among the many major advances ushered in by the Convention recognition, for the first time in a human rights treaty, of the differential and often discriminatory impact that national legislation, policies, attitudes and cultural traditions can have on girls.

The Legislative History on the Convention on the Rights of the Child is the first comprehensive record of the drafting of the Convention. It is the result of 10 years of work by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and Save the Children Sweden. It will be launched at a ceremony at the United Nations Office at Geneva on 11 June at 6.30 p.m. The publication is available from the website of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, www.ohchr.org.