Childhood

The following introduction is to a paper that was written following an international meeting of librarians held to discuss the impact of the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child.

The idea that children have rights is of relatively recent origin and related to the concept of childhood and the notion of a child. `The question: What is a child? is one answered by adults. Adults impose their conceptions of childishness on beings they consider to be children. There have been different conceptions of the nature of childhood at different periods of history. Childhood is a social construct, a man-made phenomenon.’(3)

In general, children have been silenced in history because they have an insignificant position in social life. In a world, which is dominated by the interests of adults, who also have the power to define, children are considered to become autonomous, not to be autonomous.

Children have human rights, and they do not have to deserve them, they do not need to be given rights.(4) `The fact that children are not yet grown up is used as an excuse by parents, social workers, teachers, judges and many other adults to follow their own interpretation of the child’s interest and to set demands and make decisions that may have far-reaching consequences for children which no one can foresee. (…) Why are adults, who are in a much stronger position in many respects, so afraid to take children seriously and to grant them a large degree of autonomy?’ (5)

The child has to be regarded as an individual with rights of his own as a human being. Due to his situation, he also needs rights for protection and to guarantee access to services. Legal protection includes having rights and being informed about them; having the possibility to exercise these rights effectively; protecting one’s interests; and, eventually being able to enforce these rights.

Convention on the Rights of the Child

During the International Year of the Child, 1979, an Open-Ended Working Group was set up on the Question of a Convention on the Rights of the Child. The drafting process took ten years and ended in a UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted unanimously on 20 November 1989.(6). All states in the world (191) have ratified the Convention with the exception of the USA and Somalia. So one can really speak of an international standard.

The right to self-determination stating that children have the right to express their views freely in all matters affecting them, and must be heard in any judicial and administrative proceeding affecting them (article 12) is crucial, as it contains a general principle characteristic of the underlying approach of the Convention: `that children are not only objects but also subjects of rights, and that a determination of the child’s best interests should be based not only on what adults think, but also on what the child thinks.’(7)

Evidence is given that in the field of children’s rights there are not only obligations for the state, parents and other adults, but also possibilities, and opportunities for children to participate in daily life and at least have a say in their own lives. This points to a child’s right to information, which will be considered in more detail.

To continue reading the rest of this article:

http://www.ifla.org.sg/IV/ifla64/042-113e.htm

For supporters of ratification:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2255835030

http://childrightscampaign.org/crcindex.php

For ratification arguments (rebuttals to ParentalRights.org propaganda)
http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/hrj/iss19/rutkow.shtml#fnB158

For more on the general subject of children’s rights:
http://www.amazon.com/Children-Equals-Exploring-Rights-Child/dp/076182300X/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

Related articles by Zemanta

• Children’s Bill of Religious Rights (endhereditaryreligion.com)
• ‘Child’s Rights’ Forces Mobilize (deaconforlife.blogspot.com)