On January 20, 2015, Somalia ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), becoming the 195th state party to the Convention.  The UN Children’s Fund applauded the step and noted in a press release that “[t]he ratification process will be finalized once the Government of Somalia deposits the instruments of ratification with the United Nations in New York.”  Somalia had been one of three states—the others being the United States and South Sudan—that had yet to ratify the Convention. In a news article, the UN highlighted the significance of the occasion by noting that “while the CRC is a universally agreed set of non-negotiable standards and obligations, providing protection and support for the rights of children, its three Optional Protocols deal, respectively, with protecting children from trafficking, prostitution and child pornography; prohibiting their recruitment in armed conflict; and allowing children to bring forward complaints to the UN if their rights are being abused.”