The Child’s Right to Family

Author(s):  
Barbara Bennett Woodhouse

This chapter discusses the role played by human rights charters, such as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the European Charter of Human Rights, and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, in establishing that children are not mere property of their parents but persons with their own independent rights to protection of family relationships and family identity. The chapter identifies specific provisions in these charters relevant to children’s family rights. It then examines various decisions of the European Court of Human Rights that address claims of violations of children’s rights to family in contexts including adoption, child protection, family reunification, access to birth records, and immigration, and that define appropriate remedies. The chapter closes by highlighting the growing threat to children’s rights to know and be cared for by their families posed by the populist backlash in wealthier nations against migrants fleeing war, violence, and poverty.

Author(s):  
Wouter Vandenhole ◽  
Gamze Erdem Türkelli

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.


Author(s):  
Mykola Bondaruk ◽  
Serhiy H. Melenko ◽  
Liubov Omelchuk ◽  
Liliya Radchenko ◽  
Anzhela Levenets

The objective of the research is to analyze the main violations of children's rights within the European Convention on Human Rights to highlight the basic positions of the European Court of Human Rights ECHR on their protection, as well as to determine the advisability of applying the practice of this court by the European states. The methodological basis of the work consists of different methods, such as analysis and synthesis, dialectical, logical-legal and formal-legal. The result of this work allowed identifying the role of the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights as a source of European law and its importance for the protection of the rights of the child, interpreting the legal positions established in the pertinent decisions of the said court and comparing them, to justify the need for your careful observation of the practice of the ECHR in the application of the law. It is concluded that the practice of the ECHR is recognized as a source of law in most states. And although the Ukrainian legal tradition does not recognize the status of judicial precedent as a source of law, such precedents are actively used in everyday legal activity.


Author(s):  
Savitri Goonesekere

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.


Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 500
Author(s):  
Stephany Iriana Pasaribu ◽  
Frank Vanclay

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.


2012 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-89
Author(s):  
Amy Risley

This article argues that social issues are central to the children’s rights movement in Argentina. For more than a decade, child advocates have traced the plight of children to poverty, marginality, and neoliberal economic reforms. In particular, they have framed the issue of child welfare as closely related to socioeconomic conditions, underscored the “perverse” characteristics of the country’s existing institutions and policies, and called for reforms that accord with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Although the country’s policies are gradually being transformed due to a landmark child-protection law passed in 2005, a dramatically more progressive framework for children’s rights has not yet been adopted. Given that policymakers have largely failed to reverse the trends that activists perceive as harming children, it is expected that advocates will continue to criticise the gap between domestic realities and the social and economic rights included in the Convention.


2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 141
Author(s):  
Muhammad Fachri Said

This study aims to analyze the problem of legal protection for children in the perspective of human rights. The type of this research is socio-juridical or including descriptive research with a non-doctrinal approach, which views law as a socio-empirical symptom observed in experience. The research method used is descriptive research with the type of incorporation of normative legal research with sociological legal research related to the implementation of legal protection for children in the perspective of human rights. The results of the study show that the results of this study are the legal protection of children in the perspective of human rights in essence is an effort made by parents, government and society to fulfill and guarantee all children's rights that have been guaranteed in the convention of children's rights and laws Number 35 of 2014 concerning Child Protection. Legal protection for children in the perspective of human rights is less implemented because the government has not implemented its obligations in fulfilling children's rights so that there are still legal violations of children. The recommendation of this research is to implement legal protection for children in the perspective of human rights, parents should be fully responsible for the behavior of children and the government establishes policies that are in line with the wishes of the community, so that the common perception between parents, government and society is realized in fulfilling the rights child.


Author(s):  
R Brian Howe ◽  
Katherine Covell

Abstract This article analyses the rise of the new right-wing, nationalistic, xenophobic, and authoritarian populism as a challenge to children’s human rights. Informed by human needs theory, it situates the new populism in the context of globalization, economic grievances, and cultural resentment and backlash against out-groups. Fuelling the rise in support for populism has been growing existential insecurity combined with a lack of effective education on human rights. The outcome, as shown in countries where populism has come into power, has been a threat and an attack on the human rights of children, as described in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. An important means of meeting the challenge of populism, we contend, is comprehensive and robust human rights education in schools, underpinned by education on children’s rights. As called for by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, children’s rights education needs to be integrated into school curricula, policies, practices, teaching materials, and teacher training. Models of human rights education in schools are available and studies have shown positive results in promoting knowledge, understanding, and support for human rights. As described by the United Nations, through providing education about, through, and for human rights, the ultimate goal—yet to be realized—is to advance a culture of human rights. Such a culture would serve as a counter to populism.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Richard P. Hiskes

The world does not really believe that human rights pertain to children. This is so in spite of the fact that the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) has been ratified by all nations worldwide except for one, the United States. This book explores the reasons behind the US refusal in ...


2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-188
Author(s):  
Karen M. Staller

In this article I explore the intersections of children's human rights, social policy, and qualitative inquiry from a social work perspective. First, I consider the relationship between human rights work and social work. Second, I argue that children add complexity to the human rights debate. In doing so, I briefly examine the conflict between children's rights as developed in the United States and that of the United Nation's Convention on the Rights of the Child. Third, I turn to a specific qualitative research project in which a team of researchers conducted an in-depth study of the prosecution of child sexual abuse in one U.S. jurisdiction. I argue that the findings from this study illustrate how qualitative inquiry can reveal conflicting and often hidden value trade-offs that must be addressed when enacting and enforcing children's human rights. This study demonstrates what qualitative inquiry has to offer policy advocates who seek to promote children's human rights.


2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 205-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzanne Egan

The un General Assembly has recently adopted a third Optional Protocol to the crc, providing for an individual complaint mechanism for children. The product of a sustained campaign on the part of ngos and children’s rights advocates, the Protocol achieves a certain parity of esteem for children vis-à-vis complainants under other core un human rights instruments by enabling them to make complaints specifically with respect to rights guaranteed by the Convention and its two substantive protocols. This article examines the terms of this new procedure in the light of its drafting history and explains why the resulting text has in many respects disappointed in terms of delivering a much-hoped for “child-friendly” complaint mechanism for children.


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