Lifelines |
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| Volume 1 | Fall 1999 | |
"Focus on the Growing Efficacy of Prevention Programs" |
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The U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child as a Touchstone for Research on Childhoods Ten years after its adoption by the General Assembly, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child has become a text with power in the world. The document was developed by representatives of forty-three nations who wrestled with cultural and political differences as they sought to articulate world-wide moral standards for the treatment of children. The Convention is organized around four core principles: non-discrimination; the best interests of the child; rights to survival and development; and paying attention to the views of the child (for the full text and continually updated factual information and analysis, see UNICEF's website at http://www.unicef.org/crc/). After its adoption in 1989, the Convention gained political momentum when it was ratified more quickly and by more nations (all but two at latest count) than any treaty in the history of human rights. Legally, the Convention is more than an expression of good intent; it is a "soft law;' gaining force as nations draw upon its principles to draft and amend legislation. The Convention seeks to guide the practices not only of legislatures and courts, but also parents, police, social welfare agencies, health care professionals, and others who work with and have responsibility for children. And it urges governments to educate their publics, including children, about the principles of children's rights. Child advocacy organizations have played a major role in the adoption, ratification, and implementation of the Convention, further extending its influence (for information about the global network of child advocacy NGO's, see http:// childhouse.uio.no/). Over the last decade the U.N. Convention has become a touchstone for research about activism on behalf of children. The monitoring provisions of the convention obligate participating nations to provide factual updates on the legal, material, health, family, and educational circumstances of children who live within their borders. The resulting information has thus far been scattered and uneven, but the monitoring infrastructure is a boost towards expanding global knowledge about childhoods. As are debates about indicators of progress and about the conceptual frameworks inscribed in the Convention, such as definitions of "family" that elevate the nuclear family above other forms of kinship and personal support, and "rights thinking" as a way of grappling with children's circumstances and experiences. Is it significant that the U.S., the most powerful proponent of the neo-liberal model of global economic restructuring, is one of only two nations (the other is Somalia) that have not yet ratified the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child? What beliefs allow so many children to be placed at risk in one of the richest countries in the world? U.S. political culture has been framed, from the beginning, by a language of individual rights that emphasizes individual liberty rather than claims to economic and social justice. Comparative inquiry into changing discourses of "rights and needs," understood in political, economic, cultural, and historical context, would enrich our understanding of childhoods now and in the past. The expansion of children's formal rights would be a step toward improving their circumstances, but it is clearly only a beginning in a world where the material and social conditions of so many children are continuing to deteriorate. Thorne, B. (1999). Editorial for Childhood: A Global Journal of Child Research, vol 6, no.4. Reprinted with permission |
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