In 1991, the Government of Canada ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, requiring governments at all levels to ensure that Canadian laws and practices safeguard the rights of children. A Question of Commitment: Children's Rights in Canada is the first book to assess the extent to which Canada has fulfilled this commitment.

The editors, R. Brian Howe and Katherine Covell, contend that Canada has wavered in its commitment to the rights of children and is ambivalent in the political culture about the principle of children's rights. A Question of Commitment expands the scope of the editors' earlier book, The Challenge of Children's Rights for Canada, by including the voices of specialists in particular fields of children's rights and by incorporating recent developments.