scholarly journals “Revolution is the Equality of Children and Adults”: Yaşar Kemal Interviews Street Children, 1975

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Nazan Maksudyan
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Street Children ◽  
Children's Rights ◽  
Children’S Rights ◽  
Political Agency ◽  
Childhood Studies ◽  
Political Protest ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Ethnicity And Gender

Abstract In 1975, the world-famous novelist Yaşar Kemal (1923–2015) undertook a series of journalistic interviews with street children in Istanbul. The series, entitled “Children Are Human” (Çocuklar İnsandır), reflects the author's rebellious attitude as well as the revolutionary spirit of hope in the 1970s in Turkey. Kemal's ethnographic fieldwork with street children criticized the demotion of children to a less-than-human status when present among adults. He approached children's rights from a human rights angle, stressing the humanity of children and that children's rights are human rights. The methodological contribution of this research to the history of children and youth is its engagement with ethnography as historical source. His research provided children the opportunity to express their political subjectivities and their understanding of the major political questions of the time, specifically those of social justice, (in)equality, poverty, and ethnic violence encountered in their everyday interactions with politics in the country. Yaşar Kemal's fieldwork notes and transcribed interviews also bring to light immense injustices within an intersectional framework of age, class, ethnicity, and gender. The author emphasizes that children's political agency and their political protest is deeply rooted in their subordination and misery, but also in their dreams and hopes. Situating Yaşar Kemal's “Children Are Human” in the context of the 1970s in Turkey, I hope to contribute to childhood studies with regard to the political agency of children as well as to the history of public intellectuals and newspapers in Turkey and to progressive representations of urban marginalization.

17. Children’s Human Rights Advocacy

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vanessa Pupavac
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Constructivism ◽  
Moral Agent ◽  
Children's Rights ◽  
Children’S Rights ◽  
History Of Childhood ◽  
Material Development ◽  
Human Rights Advocacy ◽  
History Of ◽  
Constructivist Approaches

This chapter examines some theoretical and practical problems in global children's rights advocacy. It begins with a discussion of the novelty of children's rights and the problem of identifying the moral agent of children's rights. It then considers the tensions between the universalism of human rights advocacy and the relativism of development advocacy. It shows that children's rights research is influenced by social constructivism, which highlights the history of childhood and childhood norms. Early social constructivist approaches identified the concept of childhood underpinning the Convention on the Rights of the Child as a Western construction based on Western experiences and its exclusion of the experience of childhood in developing countries. The chapter proceeds by looking at a case study involving attempts to eradicate corporal punishment of children globally. It suggests that there are social and political problems with attempting to globalize childhood norms without globalizing material development.

The child as a gendered rights holder

Childhood ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-157
Author(s):  
Sara Frödén ◽  
Ann Quennerstedt
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Children's Rights ◽  
Children’S Rights ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Age And Gender ◽  
Human Rights Treaties ◽  
Sexual Orientations ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Rights Issues

In this article, we call for a gendering of children’s rights by using an intersectional approach. First, age and gender in different theoretical frameworks are highlighted. Second, we demonstrate the interconnection of age and gender in United Nations human rights treaties and interpretation guidance. Third, current gendered rights issues are identified and new ones are proposed. Finally, we argue that further gendering of children’s rights is necessary to acknowledge issues relating to children with different gender, sexual orientations and ethnicities.

Citizenship and Rights of Children

2020 ◽  
pp. 221-236
Author(s):  
David B. Thronson
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Forced Migration ◽  
Children's Rights ◽  
Children’S Rights ◽  
Central Factor ◽  
Family Unity

Citizenship plays a larger and more critical role in the life of children than it should. Children who lack citizenship are incredibly vulnerable to exploitation. In the migration context, a child’s citizenship can be largely determinative of where and with whom a child lives. Despite a modern children’s rights framework that recognizes the humanity and autonomy of children, citizenship and nationality still form an integral part of a child’s identity and play a critical role in a child’s development. It has a pervasive impact in securing other rights for children and can be a central factor in a child’s cultural and linguistic background, education, economic and environment exposures, and virtually all aspects of a child’s daily life. This chapter examines children’s right to citizenship and explores the ongoing crisis of statelessness that undermines these rights. It reviews the role that citizenship plays in both voluntary and forced migration of children, child-specific protections found in both universal and regional human rights frameworks, and the role of children’s citizenship in promoting family unity.

The Best Interests of the Child

2020 ◽  
pp. 203-221
Author(s):  
Wouter Vandenhole ◽  
Gamze Erdem Türkelli
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Family Law ◽  
Children's Rights ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Children’S Rights ◽  
Best Interests ◽  
Rights Of The Child ◽  
European Court ◽  
Elusive Concept

The best interests of the child principle is considered a pillar of children’s rights law and, according to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), is to be a primary consideration in all actions concerning children. Yet best interests is an elusive concept and principle that has no single authoritative definition or description. Internationally and domestically relevant in such diverse areas as family law, adoption, migration, and socioeconomic policymaking, the best interests principle requires flexibility and is best served by a case-by-case approach, as has been recognized by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and the European Court of Human Rights. This chapter analyzes relevant international case law and suggests the use of a number of safeguards to prevent such requisite flexibility from presenting a danger of paternalism, bias, or misuse.

The Interrelated and Interdependent Nature of Children’s Rights

2020 ◽  
pp. 69-98
Author(s):  
Savitri Goonesekere
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Children's Rights ◽  
Children’S Rights ◽  
Effective Implementation ◽  
Rights Of The Child ◽  
Global Agenda

The chapter analyses children’s human rights as universal norms and standards incorporated in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) that are relevant in diverse national contexts. Discussing national experiences and the quasi-jurisprudence of treaty bodies, the chapter argues that understanding the interrelated nature of the different groups of rights in the CRC is essential for effective implementation of these rights. It is suggested that the concept of the indivisibility of human rights and the global agenda of sustainable development reinforce the need for this approach. The chapter also discusses the interdependence, compatibility, and conflict between children’s rights and the human rights of other groups, such as parents, women, and a community with which a child connects as he or she grows to adulthood. The chapter argues that incorporating children’s rights in national constitutions, rather than ad hoc legislation, encourages this holistic approach to implementing children’s rights.

Taking Children’s Human Rights Seriously

2020 ◽  
pp. 48-69
Author(s):  
Michael Freeman
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Children's Rights ◽  
Popular Media ◽  
Children’S Rights ◽  
Ronald Dworkin ◽  
Philosophical Discussion ◽  
Persuasive Argument ◽  
The Law ◽  
Deficit View

Despite the development of the children’s rights movement, human rights scholarship continues to overlook the rights of children. Even those like Ronald Dworkin, who proclaim the need to take rights seriously, are curiously silent, even ambivalent, when it comes to children. This inattention often forces advocates of children’s rights to the margins of human rights scholarship. In the few places where serious philosophical discussion of children’s rights does take place, the analysis intends to diminish the value of rights for children. These critics are not malevolent, and typically want what is best for children, but they do not think it can be accomplished through a children’s rights agenda. This chapter lays out a persuasive argument for a children’s rights agenda, or, for taking children’s rights seriously. Drawing from philosophy, history, literature, popular media, and of course the law, this chapter argues against the conventional deficit view underlying most arguments against the recognition of children’s rights and makes a case for the importance of children’s rights where rights are the currency in use.

scholarly journals Child-led research, children’s rights and childhood studies: A defence

Childhood ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 090756822199674
Author(s):  
Nigel Patrick Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Children's Rights ◽  
Children’S Rights ◽  
Childhood Studies ◽  
Research With Children ◽  
Ethics Of Research

Recent articles by Kim and Hammersley have critiqued, respectively: the methodological and normative assumptions that underlie research ‘by’ children; claims made about the implications of children’s rights for the ethics of research with children; and more broadly, some of the central commitments of Childhood Studies. This paper offers a response to these critiques, seeking to distinguish between those that clearly should be accepted, those that appear to be based on a misreading of the claims being made by scholars and researchers, and those that represent serious challenges to defend, redefine or rethink our aims, claims or practices.

scholarly journals Children in Armed Conflict: A Human Rights Crisis in Somalia

Global Jurist ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Salvador Santino Jr. Fulo Regilme ◽  
Elisabetta Spoldi
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Children's Rights ◽  
Children’S Rights ◽  
Armed Groups ◽  
Public International Law ◽  
Rebel Groups ◽  
False Sense ◽  
Alternative Sources

Abstract Despite the consolidated body of public international law on children’s rights and armed conflict, why do armed rebel groups and state forces deploy children in armed conflict, particularly in Somalia? First, due to the lack of alternative sources of income and livelihood beyond armed conflict, children join the army due to coercive recruitment by commanders of armed groups. Their participation in armed conflict generates a fleeting and false sense of material security and belongingness in a group. Second, many Somali children were born in an environment of existential violence and material insecurity that normalized and routinized violence, thereby motivating them to view enlistment in armed conflict as morally permissible and necessary for existential survival.

scholarly journals Children’s Rights in the Indonesian Oil Palm Industry: Improving Company Respect for the Rights of the Child

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 500
Author(s):  
Stephany Iriana Pasaribu ◽  
Frank Vanclay
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Child Labor ◽  
Palm Oil ◽  
Oil Palm ◽  
Children's Rights ◽  
Business Case ◽  
Children’S Rights ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Rights Of The Child ◽  
Social License

Although companies have many direct and indirect impacts on the lives of children, discussion of the responsibility of business to respect the rights of children has primarily focused on child labor. Using UNICEF’s Children’s Rights and Business Principles as a framework for our analysis, we considered the activities of oil palm plantation companies operating in Indonesia. Our data come from key informant interviews and reflection on two programs established to promote respect for children’s rights in the Indonesian palm oil industry: one by Pusat Kajian Perlindungan Anak (PKPA) (Center for Child Study and Protection); and one by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) in conjunction with UNICEF. We considered: how plantation company activities impacted children’s lives; how companies demonstrated respect for children’s rights; and how observance of children’s rights can be improved. We discuss four problematic issues: getting company commitments to children’s rights into policy and practice; having a strong business case for respecting human rights and children’s rights; contradictory objectives within companies; and complexities around children in the workplace. We argue that a children’s rights based approach should be applied to the activities of all organizations. This children’s rights lens is needed to overcome the invisibility of children in society and industry, and to address the root causes of human rights harms. We note that respecting children’s rights will likely contribute to getting a social license to operate and grow.

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