Children's Rights

by

Heather Montgomery

Introduction

Children’s rights are an integral part of human rights; children have rights because they are human. This has been acknowledged and codified in national and international legislation, most notably in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC; 1989). Children are also accorded additional rights because it is recognized that they are more vulnerable than adults and have less power and access to resources. In law children’s rights apply to persons between the ages of newborn and eighteen, following Article 1 of the UNCRC. Although this article has come under criticism for imposing an arbitrary time frame on childhood and for ignoring other phases in the life cycle, such as adolescence, discussions of children’s rights are framed by these chronological boundaries. The study of children’s rights is a comparatively new topic of interest, but it has generated a great deal of controversy across several fields, including social policy, law, philosophy, anthropology, and sociology. It also has significant impact in fields such as health care, education, and welfare provision. Certain rights have been enshrined in law, yet there is still much debate over the moral rights of children—whether these rights do, or should, exist and who should safeguard them.

General Overviews

The topic of children’s rights has been approached from a number of different perspectives, most notably, legal and philosophical. The majority of the key texts in the field came out in the 1990s, when legislation, such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), was coming into force. The debates and philosophical background to the issue are most fully discussed in Archard 2004. Two edited collections of essays (Archard and Macleod 2002, Freeman 2004), by philosophers and lawyers, respectively, analyze the tensions between autonomy and dependence and examine why children should have particular rights and how they should best be implemented. These issues are picked up and summarized in a single article, Campbell 1992. A more recent book, John 2003, argues for a change of emphasis such that children’s rights be seen in terms of power relationships and structural inequalities rather than protection. Whereas Archard, Freeman, and John are supportive of children’s rights, other academics, particularly from the United States, express more skepticism. Purdy 1992 and Guggenheim 2005 assert that children’s welfare and interests are not best served through a rights agenda. O’Neill, in a much cited article (O’Neill 1988), is also unconvinced.

• Archard, David. Children: Rights and Childhood. 2d ed. London and New York: Routledge, 2004.

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  The key academic text for understanding the philosophical and moral basis of children’s rights. Clearly written, and suitable for undergraduates and above, the text relates children’s rights to ideas about childhood, examining why children need particular rights and relationships among child, adult, and state. Also looks at issues of age-related competencies.

• Archard, David, and Colin M. Macleod, eds. The Moral and Political Status of Children: New Essays. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

  DOI: 10.1093/0199242682.001.0001E-mail Citation »

  A collection of essays from philosophers looking at the moral and legal status of children and the impact that the rights agenda has had on children’s lives. The central section of the book discusses the tension between autonomy and dependence in children’s lives.

• Campbell, Tom D. “The Rights of the Minor: As Person, as Child, as Juvenile, as Future Adult.” International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family 6.1 (1992): 1–23.

  DOI: 10.1093/lawfam/6.1.1E-mail Citation »

  A concise but comprehensive look at the philosophical basis of children’s rights, asking what differentiates children and children’s rights from adults and their rights. The article discusses positive and moral rights and whether there is a contradiction between them. Also raises important questions of dependence and autonomy. Available online through purchase.

• Freeman, Michael D. A., ed. Children’s Rights. 2 vols. Aldershot, UK, and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2004.

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  A collection of previously published scholarly articles that cover the key theorists from the early 1970s to 2003 in a variety of different disciplines, thereby showing the evolution in thinking on the subject. The text looks at arguments both for and against children’s rights and covers Europe, the United States, and the rest of the world.

• Guggenheim, Martin. What’s Wrong with Children’s Rights? Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005.

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  Based on cases primarily from the United States, this work argues that children’s interests are best protected by families rather than the state, which, by promoting a discourse of children’s rights, isolates and even alienates children from their parents. Rejects the idea of children’s rights as helpful to children.

• John, Mary. Children’s Rights and Power: Charging Up for a New Century. Children in Charge. London and New York: Jessica Kingsley, 2003.

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  Concentrates on the issue of power in children’s relationships with adults and raises questions about how greatly children have been, or can be, empowered through rights. Using international case studies and examples, this book frames discussions of rights in terms of power and agency rather than autonomy or dependency.

• O’Neill, Onora. “Children’s Rights and Children’s Lives.” Ethics 98.3 (1988): 445–463.

  DOI: 10.1086/292964E-mail Citation »

  One of the most cited scholarly articles examining the legal and moral principles behind children’s rights and their possible negative impacts. It has been anthologized in Alston, et al. 1992 and Dillon 2010 (cited under Anthologies). Writing from a legal perspective, O’Neill focuses on the idea of obligation in relation to children’s rights—who has what duties toward individual children or children as a group.

• Purdy, Laura M. In Their Best Interest? The Case against Equal Rights for Children. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1992.

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  This author is one of the most vehement critics of the notion of children’s rights and is much cited. She claims that rights for children are not in the best interests of either society or individual children. Acknowledges that children may need protecting but does not believe that they should have rights equal to those of adults.