Search Results (22)

In this paper, it is argued that we are in a ‘postpaternalist’ era for children’s rights, involving grassroots action from children (for the first time, on a global scale) rather than well-meaning adults ‘giving’ children their rights. Child/youth climate action has involved under-18s acting for the environment through grassroots protest, media work and lobbying. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) has arguably to date been approached in a paternalist way, whereby children need adults to help them to access rights. Yet, child/youth climate advocates have taken their own action, and demand equality as they enter rights spaces. They are frequently working with adults as equals and allies in litigating climate cases, for example. It is argued that (although there are rights challenges in a postpaternalist time) these young rights leaders have transformed human rights for the better, and adults should facilitate their work in a way that is child- and youth-friendly. Full article

Building on critical childhood studies and childism, this paper analyses children’s participation in family law cases in Denmark. Spurred particularly by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, together with a general shift in the view on children, several jurisdictions, including Denmark, have implemented legislative reform in the last decades to accommodate children’s participation rights. Even though such legal participation rights have increased, research in the family law field indicates that children’s perspectives are often undermined or excluded. An analysis of qualitative data (workshops, observations, and interviews) establishes how the positioning of children and children’s perspectives (as well as how “listening to children” is enacted) can be crucial to understanding the mechanisms that either subsidize or undermine children’s perspectives in family law cases. The paper argues further that “listening emergent” to children can offer a path to deconstructing the norms and structures that undermine and exclude children’s views—and thus offer a childist contribution to childhood research. Full article

Many recent legislative reforms concerning children have emphasized the importance of involving children and adolescents in accordance with the principles of Article 12 in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. This article deals with the rights of youths to express their opinions, feelings, and views in parent-teacher conferences in lower secondary education in Denmark. Both international and Danish research on parent-teacher conferences has shown that students are often objectified and are not provided with real opportunities to participate with their own voices and perspectives. Based on the sociology of Hartmut Rosa, the article explores students’ experiences of parent-teacher conferences as zones of alienation or spaces of resonance. In addition, we draw on Gert Biesta’s concept of subjectification to analyze how the current organization of the conferences largely displaces students’ opportunities to bring themselves into play as subjects of their own lives. The analysis is based on observations and interviews carried out in 2021 and 2022. Full article

Accurate methods of age estimation are more essential than ever due to the rise in undocumented individuals without proper identification, often linked to illegal immigration and criminal activities. This absence of reliable records presents challenges within the legal systems, where age thresholds in the context of children’s rights vary across countries. Age 14 has global significance, as established by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the EU for administrative purposes. Accurate age estimation is crucial in medical decisions, reproductive health, and forensics. This study focuses on age estimation via dental radiographs, proposing a method for estimating the likelihood of having attained the age of 14. Orthopantomograms were analyzed from two samples, 191 Italian children (aged 5–15) and 822 Chilean subjects (aged 11–22), using dental maturity indices. These indices evaluated open tooth apices and complete root development. Statistical analysis confirmed the method’s reliability in identifying individuals aged 14 or older, with sex-specific cut-offs. The proposed method particularly advocates an approach based on dental mineralization, which could surpass those relying on bone growth. The collaboration between medical experts, including pediatricians and diagnostic imaging specialists, is vital for standardized age estimation strategies. Ethical concerns regarding radiation exposure and accountability are recognized, although the method’s low radiation doses are deemed acceptable. The proposed method will help health professionals to accurately predict whether or not the 14-year threshold has been reached, opening up new avenues of medico-legal interest and laying the foundations for a legal framework that would allow the pediatrician, when involved, to use a valid and recognized diagnostic approach. Full article

Worldwide, 200 million children experience disability, with the vast majority living in low- and middle-income countries. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) places great importance on the rights of all children for the opportunities for survival, growth, health, and development. A subsequent document, the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), identifies children with disabilities as rights bearers who should be considered in all policies and programming worldwide. Nigeria, in 1991 and 2010, ratified the CRC and the CRPD, respectively. Nonetheless, knowledge of the extent to which their disability and child-directed policies considers these two key conventions, in ensuring that children and children with disabilities have access to care within their right remains limited. This study examined the extent to which Nigeria’s current disability and childhood policies have integrated the two child and disability related conventions from the UN. Using a structured search of databases and Nigerian federal and state government websites, we conducted a policy review to identify their disability and child-related disability policies. We also included the CRC and CRPD reports submitted by the Nigerian government to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) (2008 and 2010 cyclical year). A thematic analysis, based on the CRC and CRPD report, identified the following six themes: participation, support systems, awareness raising, factors associated with adherence to the CRC, laws and rights, and services. The review showed that the available Nigerian disability policies were federal, with some state policies which aligned with the CRC and CRPD. Also identified was the lack of disability policies specific to children and their families. We concluded that, to ensure proper inclusion of the rights of all children, including those with disabilities, in Nigeria there is a need for a more optimal uptake of recommendations of the CRC and CRPD as laid out by the UN. Full article

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 12, states that young people should be able to participate in issues that affect them. In this study, the indigenous Orang Rimba community examines the natural resources of their area through mapping so that the community can be more aware of environmental changes and at the same time their culture can be preserved. This research employs participatory resource mapping (PRM) to gather information about how young Orang Rimba view the forest in relation to customs. The study includes workshops on using GPS and GIS as well as resource mapping activities in the forest ecosystem. Through the participatory resource mapping, the study successfully maps 12 sacred places, 6 animal sites, and 14 medicinal plants in a short survey. The young Orang Rimba were also capable of addressing current environmental issues, including deforestation events, and simultaneously protecting the forest through local cultural practices. The study recommends involving indigenous communities in natural resource protection and awareness through mapping activities from a young age. Full article

Comprehensive sexuality education (known as Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) in England), which is age-appropriate, accurate, realistic and non-judgemental, is a tool that enables children and young people to make informed decisions about their sexual health, sexuality and well-being. As such, it is crucial towards the realisation of many of the rights of children under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, such as, but not limited to, the rights to information, education and health. However, in the English guidance on RSE, there is very little consideration of children’s rights, and the requirement to involve parents in the shaping of RSE curricula as well as the right for parents to withdraw children from sex education lessons potentially hinders children’s access to RSE. In this paper, we discuss the views and experiences of teachers and professional educators to ascertain the position of children’s rights in the National Guidance on RSE and in the everyday practice of teaching RSE. Their views and experiences assist us in understanding some of the motivators and barriers to teaching RSE from the perspective of children’s rights. In analysing the English approach to RSE, we used Bourke, Mallon and Maunsell’s framework and considered RSE rights under the UNCRC from the perspective of the right to education; rights in education and rights through RSE. Full article

Laws and policies in different jurisdictions provide a range of mechanisms that allow children involved in child protection processes and care proceedings to express their views when decisions that affect them are being made. Whether these mechanisms facilitate children’s involvement and whether they result in children’s views being heard and “given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child”, as required by article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, is the focus of this article. The law, policy and practice in New South Wales, Australia, are used to provide a contextual illustration of the wider theoretical and practical issues, drawing on international comparisons and research. It is clear there is still some way to go to satisfy the requirements of article 12 in Australia and other jurisdictions. These mechanisms often do not provide the information children need to understand the process, nor do they consistently encourage meaningful participation through trusted advocates who can accurately convey children’s views to those making the decisions. It is generally unclear how children’s views are heard, interpreted, and weighted in decision-making processes. The research findings from a number of countries, however, are clear and consistent that children often feel ‘unheard’ and that they have had few opportunities to say what is important to them. A number of conclusions and practice suggestions are outlined for how the law could better accommodate children’s views. Full article

Background and Objectives: In 1989, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly adopted the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), with a considerable number of the Articles of the Convention being related to the health status of children. Therefore, adhering to and assessing the implementation of the rights of children during hospitalization is a very important step towards child protection. Herein, we attempt to highlight the depth of knowledge of employees working in children’s hospitals with regard to children’s rights as well as the degree of adherence to the UNCRC with respect to hospitalized children. Material and Methods: The target group included all healthcare professionals working in the various general pediatric clinics of the three Children’s Hospitals of the Athens metropolitan area in Greece. We conducted a cross-sectional study, with data collection carried out in February and March 2020, using a structured questionnaire consisting of 46 questions which was handed out to all personnel. For the analysis, we used the IBM SPSS 21.0. Results: A total of 251 individuals participated in the study (physicians 20%, nurses 72%, and other employees 8%). A total of 54.5% of health professionals did not know what the UNCRC is, and 59.6% of them were not even aware that their hospital had rules and a bioethical committee related to clinical research involving children. Lack of awareness or trust of health professionals is also observed for other procedures or supervisory measures such as abuse protocols, complaint control, admission control, etc. With regard to the health system, there are shortcomings or weaknesses in (a) procedures followed with regard to respect for gender and privacy, (b) information on basic services provided by pediatric hospitals (such as recreation, education and free meals during hospitalization), (c) the logistical infrastructure (such as recreational facilities and facilities for the disabled), (d) the possibility of recording complaints, and (e) hospitalizations that were not necessary. A difference emerged concerning the nurses’ responses between the three hospitals, with nurses participating in relevant seminars held in one of the hospitals being significantly more informed. Conclusions: The majority of healthcare personnel seem unaware of basic principles with respect to children’s rights during hospitalization as well as relevant procedures and supervisory measures. Moreover, obvious weaknesses of the health system exist with respect to procedures, services, infrastructure, and complaint recording. There is a need for improved education of health professionals with respect to the implementation of children’s rights in pediatric hospitals. Full article

The Child Friendly Cities Initiative introduced by UNICEF aims to help local governments realise child rights by utilising the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child as its foundation. Using Lundy’s model of child participation, which focuses on spaces, voice, audience, and influence, this study assesses young people’s participation as child councillors in two programmes in one city in Malaysia. Ten young people who were former child councillors in one state in Malaysia participated in this study. This study employed thematic analysis in analysing the data obtained using focus groups. Based on the data presented, it was clear that adult (the responsible party) understanding of meaningful child participation is still weak. This study offers substantial contributions to the limited body of literature on child participation in Malaysia by focusing on the difficulties of former child councillors in engaging in meaningful participation. Thus, more efforts (for example, by using participatory methods) are needed to educate the responsible party on the importance of addressing the power dynamic between children and adults so that children can participate effectively in decision-making processes. Full article

This article reviews how children’s rights can be considered a driver of internet governance based on general comment No. 25 (2021) on children’s rights in relation to the digital environment. This instrument translates the rights derived from the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child from the pre-digital era to the application of children’s rights to current issues of digitization. In the introduction, I explain how this general comment was drawn up and what its legal significance is. This article briefly summarizes the content of the general comment and then goes on to discuss the main impacts of this instrument on internet governance, namely, substantial shifts, children’s rights by design, the law’s binding nature, and participation. Full article

The state of the ‘social’ that individuals, social groups and societies experience are a focus of international conventions, declarations and goal setting documents. Many indicators of the ‘social’ and measures of well-being that contain sets of indicators of the ‘social’ exist to ascertain the state of the ‘social’ of individuals, social groups, and societies. Marginalized groups are well known to have problems with the ‘social’ they experience. Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) and similar phrases are used in policy discussions to deal with ‘social problems’ within research, education, and general workplace environments encountered by women, Indigenous peoples, visible/racialized minorities, disabled people, and LGBTQ2S+. The prevention of the worthening of the ‘social’ is one focus of science and technology governance and ethics discussions. Many health professions are also concerned about the ‘social’ such as the well-being of their clients and their roles as stated by many of their associations include being advocates and change agents. The objective of the study was to ascertain how the ‘social’ is engaged with in conjunction with the following international documents (“Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities”, “Convention on the Rights of the Child”, “Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women”, “Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples”, “Universal Declaration of Human Rights”, “International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination”, “UN Framework Convention on Climate Change”, “transforming our world: the 2030 agenda for sustainable development” and “UN flagship report on disability and development Realizing the Sustainable Development Goals by, for and with persons with disabilities”; from now on called “the documents”). A scoping review using the academic databases SCOPUS, Web of Science, databases accessible under Compendex, and the databases accessible under EBSCO-HOST, coupled with a manifest hit-count coding approach was uses to answer five research questions: (1) Which terms, phrases, and measures of the ‘social’ are present in the literature searched (2) Which of the social issues flagged in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) are present in the academic abstracts mentioning the other eight documents? (3) Which EDI frameworks, phrases and social groups covered under EDI are present in the literature covered. (4) Which technologies, science and technology governance terms and ethics fields are present in the literature covered? (5) Which health professions are mentioned in the literature covered? The results reveal vast gaps and opportunities to engage with the ‘social’ in relation to “the documents” covered for all five questions. Full article

The socio-physical qualities of built environments are, in several ways, of imperative importance for children growing up. The Child-Friendly Cities initiative by UNICEF, an implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, has made local governments strive toward child-friendliness. The participation of children and young people is often the focus of such projects, with a potential for a far broader scope. Besides participation processes, what important socio-physical qualities make environments child-friendly, and how can they be developed? This paper presents a structured literature review of the concept of child-friendly environments, in order to address the full socio-physical spectrum. The results focus on concrete factors that have been filtered through child-friendliness and the associated frameworks, showing an inherent dependence between the social context and the physical environment. The shaping of child-friendliness hinges on the realization of environments that are safe, fair, and with accessible and variable green and open spaces. A multi-stakeholder endeavor including, e.g., planners, designers, and managers requires clearly outlined priorities. This study lays the groundwork for further exploration of how the concept of child-friendly environments can lead to positive changes, also as part of the overall strive toward sustainable development. Full article

Societies of today are becoming increasingly pluralistic. This applies also to the diversity of values and worldviews in Swedish early childhood education and care (ECEC). Still, in the increasingly secular contexts, societal hegemony often fails to include children’s home religions and worldviews in the actions and understandings aiming towards inclusiveness. We argue that it is of critical importance to also include the plurality of worldviews in the educational perception of “the whole child” in the care and education taking place in ECEC. The purpose of this article is to connect the discussions in the fields of intercultural and interreligious education, in particular those dealing with the diversity of religions and worldviews, to discussions on care and social sustainability in ECEC. The UN Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development promotes inclusive and equitable education, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child states children’s right to freedom of religion and a concern for the spiritual, moral, and social development. Our previous findings have illustrated the importance of religions and worldviews in the intercultural work within early childhood education, both empirically and conceptually, and as part of the moral core of teaching. This article employs feminist and postcolonial ethics of care as a theoretical lens in elaborating on the three key notions: social sustainability, care, and worldviews. Several discursive challenges that ECEC teachers in Sweden face in their work, to enhance social sustainability by supporting the child’s well-being and sense of belonging in the ECEC, have been outlined. To conclude, we bring forth a theoretical and analytical tool for the understanding, researching, and planning of socially sustainable communities of care. Full article

In this paper we analyze the contemporary ambivalence to child migration identified by Jacqueline Bhabha and propose a developmental relational approach that repositions child refugees as active participants and rights-bearers in society. Ambivalence involves tensions between protection of refugee children and protection of national borders, public services and entrenched images. Unresolved ambivalence supports failures to honor the rights of refugee children according to international law and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. There is failure to protect and include them in national public services and in international coordination of public health and wellbeing. We identify misrepresentations of childhood and refugeeness that lie behind ambivalence and the equitable organization and delivery of public services for health and wellbeing. With illustrative studies, we propose a developmental relational framework for understanding refugee children’s contributions in the sociocultural environment. Contrary to the image of passive victims, refugee children interact with other people and institutions in the co-construction of situated encounters. A developmental relational understanding of children’s ‘co-actions’ in the social environment provides a foundation for addressing misrepresentations of childhood and refugeeness that deny refugee children protection and inclusion as rights-bearers. We point to directions in research and practice to recognize their rights to thrive and contribute to society. Full article