1.2 Children's rights
What are children’s rights?
Children grow up in very different contexts, in families and societies with different values and resources. Ideas of childhood vary considerably. While all societies recognize the difference between infancy, childhood and adulthood, views vary about what childhood represents and what children are able to do and not do and how they should be treated.
Consider…
Sisters alone
Amina is a single mother of two daughters, eight-year-old Safya and five-year-old Mila, and a health aide at the local hospital… Read more
What do you think about Amina’s arrangements for her daughters’ care?
Safya and Mila are growing up in a community where it is unusual for children to take responsibility for their younger siblings. Are Safya’s rights being violated? Why or why not?
Policies regarding programs and services at the regional, provincial or territorial and national levels of government can affect the availability and type of early childhood services for children and families. If there is a public commitment to invest in early childhood programs, children are more likely to have access. Public commitment does help to ensure children’s rights to access quality health care services and education is upheld.
Dr. Mildred Warner, a professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning at Cornell University, discusses children’s rights in terms of children’s citizenship in the United States. She argues the economic advantages of a “children as citizens with rights” perspective over a “children as private responsibility of parents” perspective.
Warner considers the economic advantages of supporting children’s rights to early childhood education and care programs in an ecological context. What are the advantages for parents, particularly mothers and for the community?
What rights of citizenship do you think children should have from birth to age five years?
What children experience each day matters. The day-to-day moments of life are deeply felt. Feeling left out from a particular group of friends at the water table can be a strong, unpleasant experience. Even if mediocre experiences or worse don’t matter much in the long run of learning and development, they can make a very unhappy day for a small child.
A focus on a child’s rights to be happy and engaged is a focus on early childhood education in the immediate here and now rather than on what they will become in the future. Children’s early learning and development become by-products the environments that children and early childhood educators create together.
Convention on the Rights of the Child
The United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) was unanimously adopted by the United Nations in 1989 (UNICEF Office of Research-Innocenti, n.d.). More countries adopted the CRC faster than any other human rights treaty. All United Nations’ member states, except for the United States, ratified the CRC. It put children’s rights on the political agendas of many countries.
The CRC outlines:
- the rights of children;
- what is needed in order to protect them; and
- what is needed to foster environments where they not only survive, but thrive.
The articles of the CRC call for the provision of specific resources, skills and contributions necessary to ensure the survival and development of children to their maximum capability and require the creation of means to protect children from neglect, exploitation and abuse.
2019 marked the 30 year anniversary of the CRC. The UNICEF website is an excellent resource with a wealth of information about the CRC and highlights some of the achievements over the past 30 years as well as remaining challenges. As you explore, notice the increasing global trend of children taking mattes into their own hands and demanding their rights.
The Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children (CCRC) works to achieve full implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Canada and around the world. The Convention on the Rights of the Child is the guiding framework for all activities of the coalition.
The KidsRights Index presents a visual and interactive way to learn more about how children’s rights are respected around the world. Explore the 2023 index for the most up to date information. Consider reviewing the 2020 and 2021 versions of the index to learn about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children’s rights.
Much more information on the Convention on the Rights of the Child is available. As you review these resources, consider how the CRC has influenced the daily lives of young children. What this means for children in your community? To read the complete text of the CRC visit the following website.
In the following article, Garry Melton discusses ideological differences among child advocates about children’s rights and the implications of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The next website presents information on the KidsRights Index 2020, which addresses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children’s rights and the ability of governments worldwide to protect and support children’s rights. You can learn more and also download the report.
The next reading closely examines the importance of children’s right to play. Lester and Russell write, “play is not a luxury to be considered after other rights; it is an essential and integral component underpinning the four principles of the CRC (nondiscrimination, survival and development, the best interests of the child, and participation)” (2010, p. x). Read the Executive Summary for an overview of the ways that play fits with the three categories addressed in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (protection, participation, and provision).
In the next reading, authors Brooker and Woodhead (2013) explain that the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has expressed concern over the widespread disregard for Article 31. This publication addresses, with a review of definitions of play, the right to play, why play matters for child development, the challenges associated with ensuring children have play opportunities and associated policy questions.
As you see in the readings above, researchers and policymakers have been talking about children’s rights and the right to play for a long time. Where you live, do you see any evidence that the government values play for children’s development?
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) was adopted in 2007. Explore the following website to learn more and to access the complete document.
Today the Declaration is the most comprehensive international instrument on the rights of indigenous peoples. It establishes a universal framework of minimum standards for the survival, dignity and well-being of the indigenous peoples of the world and it elaborates on existing human rights standards and fundamental freedoms as they apply to the specific situation of indigenous peoples” (United Nations, n.d., para. 2).
In countries with Indigenous Peoples, the exploration of child rights must address the circumstances and vulnerabilities that are unique to Indigenous children. This is certainly the case in Canada. Dr. Cindy Blackstock, executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society and a professor at McGill University’s School of Social Work, talks about culturally based equity as it relates to children’s basic rights.
What does Dr. Blackstock mean by culturally based equity?
What is the “backpack of disadvantage” she refers to?
The next reading, from the National Collaborating Centre for Aboriginal Health, discusses the disproportionate levels of risks that Canadian Indigenous children face and the need for improved services and outcomes.
What were the findings about First Nations children’s experiences and realities?
Were you aware of the issues facing First Nations children in Canada?
How does this relate to children in your community?
Jordan’s Principle was established to ensure the provision of appropriate, timely and culturally sensitive public services to First Nations children in Canada.
Listen to Cindy Blackstock tell the story of Jordan River Anderson. Then, explore the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society website to learn more about Jordan’s Principle.
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
The United Nation’s General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in 2006 and it entered into force in 2008 (United Nations – Department of Economic and Social Affairs Disability, 2015). The CRPD is an international framework for recognizing, protecting and promoting the rights of all persons with disabilities. The CRC applies to all children to ensure that human rights issues particular to persons with disabilities are made visible and addressed. The following website includes a great deal of information that will enhance your understanding of the Convention. Start by reviewing the nine guiding principles.
What do the nine guiding principles mean to you? How do they relate to your work with young children?
If someone were to say that “inclusion is a children’s rights issue” – what would you say?
In your community, what is needed to ensure that this right is met for all children?
Helping children understand their rights
It is important that children understand their rights. UNICEF has taken the lead on making sure children understand their rights with an abundance of child-friendly materials and toolkits for schools and other programs.
The next video was produced by Families Canada and the Landon Pearson Centre for the Study of Childhood and Children’s Rights. Consider how this video might be used to help children and parents or caregivers understand the CRC.
In the next clip (a video made by college students), a group of Winnipeg children identify some of their rights.
Do you think the children in the video are able to understand what these rights mean in their daily lives?
How does consideration of a child’s right to privacy affect practices in a child care centre, kindergarten or elementary school?
Can a family’s traditional childrearing practices always be respected when it comes to ensuring children’s rights?
In many parts of the world, children have regular exposure to television and other electronic media. The question of how much children actually learn from screen time is somewhat controversial, and is explored in the Communicating and Learning module. However, there is no doubt that television and media are powerful tools that attract children’s attention.
Unicef has created a website and resource package that guides the creation of communication tools and media presentations directed at children. The resources leverages the power of electronic media with young children while recognizing the challenges they present. The information is based on children’s communication rights as identified in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, for example, children’s right to be heard, to be taken seriously, to privacy, to free speach and information, to be proud of one’s heritage, and to develop cultural identity.
