Implementing the Social and Economic Rights of Children in Developing Countries: The Place of International Assistance and Cooperation

2010 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 355-385 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Wabwile

AbstractIt is a common feature of the treaties on international protection of economic and social rights that all states, regardless of their resource capabilities, are invited to ratify these treaties. Although all developing countries except Somalia have ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the macroeconomic conditions of systemic poverty and underdevelopment in these countries indicate that there are concerns as to whether and how such states can really perform their legal obligations and guarantee the fulfilment of the Convention's economic and social rights. This article examines the emerging patterns of recent state practice in this area, with a view to identifying the contribution of international cooperation and assistance in these processes. The gist of the discussion presented here is that despite their macro-economic disadvantages, developing countries can accelerate the processes of achieving full implementation of economic and social rights if they have access to appropriate arrangements for external technical and financial cooperation and assistance. In view of this, it is suggested that there may be a legal obligation on the part of the international community to render such assistance and cooperation.

2009 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 407-449 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Wabwile

International law on the protection and promotion of social and economic rights of the child binds states parties to respect, protect and secure these rights both in their own territories as well as to contribute to the programmes for such fulfilment in other countries in a strategy aiming at global implementation of these rights. This paper explores the legal basis for states‘ external obligations to support fulfilment of social and economic rights. It surveys inter alia the relevant treaty texts, explanatory resolutions of the UN General Assembly and statements in reports submitted by states parties to the UN monitoring committees, and argues that recent state practice and interpretation of human rights obligations confirms the extraterritorial obligations to support fulfilment of these rights. Since these are obligations to fulfil the rights of human beings in other countries rather than obligations to third states, they can be referred to as ‘diagonal obligations‘ to distinguish them from inter-state horizontal responsibility.


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.


2003 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 126-132
Author(s):  
Gina Bekker

In 1996 a communication was brought to the African Commission on behalf of the Ogoni people, by the Social and Economic Rights Action Center (SERAC), a Nigerian–based NGO, and the Economic and Social Rights Action Center, a New York-based NGO. This communication averred the Nigerian government's involvement in the environmental degradation and resultant health problems amongst the Ogoni, as well as the destruction of their housing and food sources, through uncontrolled and irresponsible oil production by the State oil company (a majority shareholder in a consortium of oil companies), as well as the ruthless actions of the Nigerian military in support thereof.


2010 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentine Moghadam

AbstractHow has economic reform transformed states, societies, and state-society relations in the countries of the Maghreb (North Africa)? With a focus on Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia, the paper identifies new actors, opportunities, and challenges observed in the Maghreb. Specifically, it examines how—in an era of globalization characterized by neoliberal economic policy but also the worldwide diffusion of norms of women's rights—state strategies for integration into the global economy have been affecting women's economic participation and social rights and have, in turn, led to women's collective action for legal equality and social-economic rights. As such, state-society relations are being renegotiated in terms of both new social and new gender contracts. In examining recent reforms of family codes and labor laws, the paper elucidates the contradictory effects of globalization on women and the complicated relations between states and feminist organizations in the region. The argument is informed conceptually by world-systems theory, feminist political economy, theories of citizenship, and the social movements literature.


2009 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wouter Vandenhole

AbstractSeveral provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child contain references to international cooperation, sometimes in combination with a reference to the needs of developing countries. This article explores whether these references, in light of the interpretation given by the Committee on the Rights of the Child and of other human rights treaties which contain similar wording (in particular the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Disability Convention), amount to a legal obligation to cooperate internationally for development in the field of economic, social and cultural rights. While it is not possible to establish the existence of a legal obligation to provide development assistance in general – which would amount to an extraterritorial obligation to fulfil – legal obligations to respect and protect economic, social and cultural rights of children in third countries do apply. Moreover, the CRC Committee has clarified some specific obligations of fulfilment for donor countries, such as, amongst others, the allocation of 0,7 per cent of GDP to development assistance, and the adoption of a rights-based approach to development cooperation, in which children's rights are mainstreamed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 748-777
Author(s):  
Seamus Byrne

Abstract Any discussion on children’s socio-economic rights should not overlook their means of fulfilment; namely, the principle of progressive realisation and the legal duties arising therefrom. This article argues that from a children’s rights perspective, this principle has remained legally and operationally underdeveloped by the Committee on the Rights of the Child. This can be seen from their failure sufficiently to engage with, and address, the obligations imposed by progressive realisation in their General Comments and in their Concluding Observations on state practice issued under the Convention’s reporting process. This article argues that the cumulative consequence of these failings is that the Committee has peripheralised this important legal obligation within children’s rights scholarship and has ultimately undermined its ability to achieve its full legal potential in enhancing children’s socio-economic rights. In advocating for the promulgation of a revised General Comment on the General Measures of Implementation, it demonstrates how children’s rights can meaningfully reconnect with the principle in a more consequential way.


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 101
Author(s):  
Muhamad Abdul Fatah Santoso

Islam as a religion concerned with justice and respect places great emphasis on human rights and responsibility. Child as a small human also has certain rights categorized into social, educational and financial rights. The social rights are divided into two categories: before birth and after birth. The social rights before birth includes right to noble parent having character and right to unborn child while the social rights after birth includes rights to lineage, suckle and nutrition, and being received by the Muslim society. The educational rights cover rights to life, general care and socialization as well as basic education, just and equal treatment, and physical education. The financial rights encompass rights to livelihood, property and inheritance. Such rights of the child guaranteed by Islam absolutely have relevance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1989. For enabling children to enjoy their rights, parental care plays role as a main foundation. But state and civil society organization also have key roles to play in this regard. A child friendly education may be a manifestation of social responsibility of state and civil society organization to respect and fulfill the rights of child. Such education provides a safe, clean, healthy and protective environment as well as meaningful learning for children with diverse abilities and backgrounds. Islam sebagai agama yang memperhatikan keadilan dan penghormatan memberikan penekanan yang tinggi pada hak asasi manusia dan tanggung jawab. Anak sebagai manusia kecil juga memiliki hak-hak yang dikategorisasikan ke hak-hak sosial, pendidikan, dan financial. Hak-hak sosial terbagi ke dalam duakategori: sebelum dan sesudah kelahiran. Hak-hak sosial sebelum kelahiran mencakup hak mendapatkan orangtua yang baik dan memiliki karakter, dan hak untuk tidak digugurkan dari kandungan, sementara hak-hak sosial sesudah kelahiran berupa hak mendapat silsilah keturunan yang jelas, hak mendapat air susu ibu dan gizi, dan hak diterima sebagai warga masyarakat Muslim. Adapun hak-hak pendidikan meliputi hak untuk hidup (sebagai prasyarat), hak memperoleh pengasuhan umum, hak sosialisasi, sebagaimana juga hakpendidikan dasar, hak perlakuan yang adil dan setara, serta hak pendidikan fisik. Sedangkan hak-hak finansial terdiri dari hak mendapatkan nafkah, hak memiliki harta, dan hak memperoleh warisan. Hak-hak anak yang dijamin oleh Islam tersebut ternyata relevan dengan Konvensi Hak-hak Anak yang disepakati dalam Sidang Umum Perserikatan Bangsa-bangsa (PBB) pada 1989. Untuk memungkinkan anak mendapatkan hak-haknya, perlindungan orangtua memainkan peranan sebagai landasan utama. Namun, dalam hal ini negara dan organisasi masyarakat sipil dapat juga memainkan peranan masing-masing. Pendidikan ramah anak dapat menjadi suatu perwujudan tanggung jawab sosial negara dan organisasi masyarakat sipil dalam menghormati dan memenuhi hak-hak anak. Pendidikan tersebut memberikan suatu lingkungan yang aman, bersih, sehat, dan protektif, serta pembelajaran penuh makna bagi anak-anak dengan keanekaragaman kemampuan dan latar belakang.


Author(s):  
Liz Griffith

Chapter 3 provides a critical perspective on the establishment of the Council of Europe and its development of human rights mechanisms amongst Western European powers during the Cold War. It discusses attempts to address the lack of coverage of social and economic rights in the ECHR, with the development of the European Social Charter and the Committee of Social Rights and looks at the Council of Europe’s differing approaches to civil and political rights (and the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights) and the social and economic rights contained in the Social Charter (with oversight by the Committee of Social Rights). It outlines some of the strengths and weaknesses relating to enforcement and realisability of these differing sets of rights.


2015 ◽  
Vol 16 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 55-103
Author(s):  
Johanna Aleria P. Lorenzo

Faced with the reality of finite and scarce resources, and the fact that realization of most economic and social rights requires resources, can a State comply with its icescr obligations, particularly Article 2(1) thereof, when it engages in investment promotion activities? This paper examines the conditions under which the pursuit of foreign direct investment (fdi) can be deemed consistent with State obligation to fulfill socioeconomic rights. It is posited that investment promotion activities potentially augment the limited national income of many developing countries, thereby creating conditions that make more possible the enjoyment of socio-economic rights. This relationship is premised on the caveat that, as part of the State’s duty to protect, it should ensure the pre-existence of a set of institutions that sufficiently regulates the behavior of foreign businesses and a certain level of human capital and physical infrastructure conducive to knowledge and technology transfer.


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