A Teleological and Child-Sensitive Interpretation irrespective of the status of persons on their territories, and can no longer ‘rely exclusively on the link of nationality’ to fulfil them. 28 However, the specific character of children was not considered by the drafters. When fashioning a country of reference for stateless persons, the drafters of the Refugee Convention did not define the notion in the Convention text itself, but state delegates drew upon the term in common discourse when drafting a working refugee definition as ‘the country in which [the claimant] had resided and where he had suffered or fears he would suffer persecution if he returned’. 29 Notably, art 1A(2), while couched in age-neutral language, makes no specific reference to children and the Refugee Convention itself has only several subtle references.30 This omission is not surprising in light of the Refugee Convention’s historical context. Samantha Arnold writes that international legal provisions targeting children in the period from the 1920s to 1950s, when refugee law was developing, were ‘ad hoc, limited and infrequent’ and related broadly to child welfare and protection needs. 31 The 1924 Declaration of the Rights of the Child,32 expanded on in 1959,33 was the first international treaty concerned with the rights of children, expounding the lofty aim that ‘mankind owes to the child the best that it has to give’.34 The Declaration delineated obligations towards children in five points: their wellbeing, development, assistance, relief and protection. The subsequent 1933 Convention Relating to the International Status of Refugees again referred to categories of refugees in need of protection, highlighting the welfare needs of children. 35 Special arrangements for the care of children were enforced and the Kindertransport (children’s transport), for example, served as a British government initiative to enable children to enter the UK from Germany on temporary travel visas during wartime. 36 The United Nations Children’s Fund (‘UNICEF’) was a child protection agency established later in 1946 to provide food, healthcare and clothing to children experiencing starvation and disease. 37 The 1949 Geneva Conventions are also notable for dealing with the protection needs of children.38 Other than identifying their broad welfare needs, the historical antecedents to the refugee definition depicted children as largely part of their family units, falling 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 Foster and Lambert (n 1723) 87. UN Economic and Social Council, Report of the First Ad Hoc Committee on Statelessness and Related Problems, UN Doc E/1618, E/AC.32.5 (17 February 1950) Annex II (‘Comments on the Committee of the Draft Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees’) 39. See Refugee Convention (n 1) arts 4, 17(2)(c), 22. Samantha Arnold, Children’s Rights and Refugee Law: Conceptualising Children Within the Refugee Convention (Routledge 2018) 72. See also Stefanie Schmahl, ‘Introduction into the Convention on the Rights of the Child: Historical Background, Motives, and Object and Purpose of the CRC in a Nutshell’ in Stefanie Schmahl (ed), United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article-by-Article Commentary (Bloomsbury 2021) 1–30. Geneva Declaration of the Rights of the Child, quoted in ‘Resolutions and Recommendations Adopted on the Reports of the Fifth Committee’ (1924) League of Nations OJ, Spec Supp 21, 43 (‘1924 Geneva Declaration’). Declaration on the Rights of the Child, UNGA Res 1386 (XIV) (20 November 1959). 1924 Geneva Declaration (n 32) 43. See, eg, Convention Relating to the International Status of Refugees, 159 LNTS 199 (signed 28 October 1933) art 9. Arnold (n 31) 79. Establishment of an International Children’s Emergency Fund, UN Doc A/RES/57(I) (11 December 1946). Jason M Pobjoy, The Child in International Refugee Law (Cambridge University Press 2017) ch 2; Arnold (n 31) chs 3, 4. 13