Every Right for Every Child

Governance and Accountability

Enakshi Ganguly Thukral

• Publisher: Routledge India
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781138660007
• eBook ISBN: 9781000083675
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Despite some acknowledgement over the years of the significance of seeing children as rights holders, children's concerns continue to run the risk of not being considered political and mainstream: they continue to be viewed as extensions of adults or simply as members of families and communities. This when the reality is that children are citizens the minute they are born, and entitled to as much attention, if not more than adults, given their age and vulnerability.

Concerned with the mainstreaming of children's interests in policy-making, this book raises such questions as: What is good governance vis-à-vis children? What are the standards and indicators? Can there be one answer for this question that is applicable to all countries? In order to arrive at a better understanding of what good governance for children means and how the realization of the political, cultural, social and civil rights of children may be achieved, the book draws on the diverse and yet comprehensive body of knowledge that has developed over the years from initiatives taken by organisations across the world who work with policy makers to make governance systems more accountable and responsive to the well-being of children as citizens in themselves, simultaneously empowering children to take part in decision-making processes that impact their lives.

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Children and Governance: Concept and Practice

Enakshi Ganguly Thukral

Meenal is a bright-eyed Indian girl from north-west India. She is intelligent, smart and out-going. Pulled out of school by her father, and put to work filling salties into plastic bags for eight hours a day, did not deter her or kill her spirit. After all, being the eldest of her five siblings, it was her duty to support the family and she did what was expected of her. Neither she, nor her parents, nor the society she lived in asked the question, ‘What about her?’ The school system in her town did not pull her in to ensure that she got her right to education and childhood. At some point she came in touch with an organisation that worked with children in her town. It promoted children’s forums and encouraged them to exercise their right to participation. Bright and intelligent, it was no surprise that Meenal soon became not only active in the group, but one of its leaders. She participated in meetings and jamborees organised for children across the country, even met the president of India, got selected by children from all over the country to represent them at an international meet and she travelled abroad, getting on to a plane and flying to the other end of the world, to a country she probably did not even know existed. Her first and perhaps her last journey on an airplane was exciting and exhilarating; although the free cokes and abundance of food made her totally sick.

Meenal returned from meeting people from across the world, participating in workshops, addressing meetings on rights of children, picking up a smattering of Spanish, Portuguese and English, eating food that she had never eaten before, only to find her self working in a diamond factory, polishing minute diamonds. And yet neither she nor any one around her asked why she was still barely literate and whether this was not a violation of her rights. The organisation with which she was associated said that since she was now over 14 years of age, there was little that they could do, except emotionally support her.¹ The family began to pressurise her to get married. Beautiful as she was, proposals were not a problem. Here she put her foot down and resisted. Her experience of being a leader of the children’s group was very helpful and she had support from them. As she got older, she fell in love with a boy, but as soon as she turned 18, her parents married her off to a man they chose, ignoring her own choice. After all, she was the eldest child in the family. She must not do anything to bring ‘shame’ upon it, and she caved in.

Is Meenal happy? Who knows? After all, despite having attended several workshops on child rights, and having promoted it through her organisation, in her personal life, she has never had the right to exercise them; nor has the state, the government, the system which is obligated to protect her rights intervened.

What does Meenal’s story illustrate about governance and children? More importantly, where does it leave a child like Meenal, who is aware of her rights and duties, but the system of governance has not created an environment wherein she can her exercise rights? It is in the context of children like Meenal that we need to discuss governance and children in India and elsewhere in the world.

Children, Citizenship and Governance

Governance and the realisation of rights of children are intrinsically connected. However, despite it being increasingly recognised across the world that improved or ‘good’ governance is a precondition for sustained poverty reduction and a peaceful and stable society, and being a term that is frequently used by civil society groups, governments and aid agencies at all levels, it is seldom discussed in the context of children. As Sheridan Bartlett points out,

even progressive governments that refer carefully in their policies to ‘women and men’, may express an unwitting bias against children. This is not unique to government. This bias can run deep in many quarters. Even in discussions among committed development professionals who are fully aware of the benefits of taking gender into account, it is not uncommon for interest to fade if the topic of children comes up. The unspoken message is that bringing children into the discussion is a not-quite-relevant tangent—that surely their needs are met if their parents’ needs are met. To some degree, this is true. But it is also true that boys and girls of different ages experience the world in particular ways, and may be affected in particular ways (sometimes profound and long-lasting) by a range of decisions and actions. (2005: 3)

Children’s rights even today stand at the same crossroads that women’s issues did two-and-a-half decades ago. At best they are seen as ornamental, and an add-on to the more ‘real problems of society’. They are relegated to the realm of touchy-feely sentimental ‘good work’ that children need. Children’s rights are not seen to be political and mainstream. Often even those put in charge of implementing children’s rights do not see it as ‘real developmental work’ or ‘real governance work’ unlike defence, infrastructure or commerce. Needless to say initiatives for children are presented almost as a cosmetic addition to the ‘real’ work of local government, rather than as part of an integrated response that makes children and youth a more visible component of this real work.

Hence, while governance with respect to citizens of any country as a whole has been discussed since the inception of the concept of state, it is nascent in its conceptualisation with reference to children. That is because children have been, and even now continue to be viewed as extensions of adults rather than as citizens in their own right.

The reality is that children are citizens the minute they are born and entitled to as much attention, if not more given their age and vulnerability. Investing in them is as critical in their own interest, as it is in the interest of society. The challenge is that children are unable to demand or exercise their rights and need the recognition and support of adults. The second and perhaps an equally important challenge as well as opportunity is that children grow up, so their status changes. As they grow, they need age-specific inputs. Once they become adults, they will behave and respond to others exactly as they have been responded to as children. They are citizens of today and also adults of tomorrow. And society will reap tomorrow as it sows today.

Clearly, governance begins with recognition of entitlements and citizenship. People do not suddenly become citizens on reaching a certain age. Legal age definitions are arbitrary, and do not reflect the range of capacities of children and adolescents. Human capacities develop and change throughout life at different rates according to individual potential and social environment. They vary from child to child and depend on the contexts they grow up in, on children’s mental development (see Article 23 of the Convention on Rights of the Child [CRC]), and their social, economic, cultural and religious background. Citizenship must be learned through everyday experiences of family and community life, education, civic and political awareness. Access to opportunities in school, media, sports and culture is critical for developing and practicing citizenship skills (Inter-Agency Working Group on Children’s Participation 2008: 5).

Citizenship represents the collection of rights and obligations that define the members of a community. These rights and obligations encompass legal empowerment and justice, political participation and decision-making, social engagement, economic rights and access to resources. Citizenship has two complementary aspects: citizenship rights and citizenship practice. Citizenship includes notions of rights and responsibilities, status and practice, individual and community. Western cultures tend to emphasise individual rights, whereas Asian societies emphasise the responsibilities of the individual towards family, community and society. In order to thrive, societies require a combination of the two (Inter-Agency Working Group on Children’s Participation 2008: 3). The citizenship rights of any individual, including children, include civil, political, social, cultural and economic rights. Civil and political rights are people’s entitlements to liberty and equality, and include the rights to freedom of expression and religion, to take part in political life that is appropriate for their age, and to have access to information, skills and opportunities for development and enhanced participation. The civil right to equality is expressed in the right to equal protection to redress if injured by another person and to a fair investigation and trial if suspected of a crime. In some countries, citizenship can also mean ‘nationality’ or the membership of a nation state. However, citizenship and nationality are not synonymous. Human rights law does not categorically obligate governments to extend nationality to all residents (ibid.).

If access to rights is restricted to children who only have name and nationality, many children across the world who are fleeing their countries with their parents due to conflicts or economic distress, etc. or who are born of parents who have migrated will be denied protection. It is here that the definition of citizenship that recognises foreigners and stateless persons who are in the country on legal grounds and are able to enjoy the same rights and freedoms and also bear the same duties as citizens, becomes important. Such a presumption of citizenship is a unique child protection provision, which serves to support children affected by conflicts (Duncan 2008). Clearly, a child must be protected and all his/her rights realised wherever he/she is, and this recognition and realisation of rights must not be constrained by boundaries of countries, especially in a world such as the one in which we live today where huge populations are being displaced and forced to move across political boundaries.

A commonly accepted definition of governance is the way the state exercises its political, economic and administrative power. Key attributes of good governance are that institutions and processes are built on the rule of law, accountability, openness, effectiveness and responsiveness and space for equal and meaningful participation to all sections of the society irrespective of caste, creed, religion, class, culture and age group (Abdellatif 2003). This kind of governance would, thus, necessarily be based on a rights-based approach towards its citizenry. Although the term generally refers to the actions undertaken by governments, it is also understood to go beyond government and to include the relationships between formal government institutions and an active civil society. ‘Rather than government taking decisions in isolation’, explains Diana Mitlin, ‘there is a growing acceptance (indeed expectation) of an engaged state negotiating its policies and practices with those who are a party to, or otherwise affected by, its decisions’ (Mitlin 2004: 1).

It is only with the adoption of the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child that children’s human rights came to be recognised or even addressed separately, based on the recognition of citizenship rights of children. Indeed, it would not be wrong to state that it is also with the requirement of reporting on the general measures of implementation as part of the countries’ reports to the UN Committee that special attention began to be paid to governance for children. Although most societies may have informal mechanisms for children’s participation, the recognition of children’s own agency and their right to be heard in decisions concerning them came to be openly discussed and addressed following the UNCRC.

This brings us to two concepts that need to be examined as far as children as citizens are concerned—children and governance and children in governance.

Children and governance involves developing an understanding and engagement with the systems of governance that ensure the realisation of the rights of the child. This may not necessarily include the ‘protaganism’ of children. Interested adults in society may choose to work on ensuring systems of governance by working towards creating the system, implementing programmes, or through research, advocacy or training.

Children in governance, on the other hand, requires building partnerships with the children themselves participating in governance and recognises that children are ‘agents of change’.

Children’s citizenship and governance is concerned with the active participation of girls, boys and young people in the familial, social, economic, political and cultural arenas. It is a step-by-step process through which they develop the skills, understanding and values to influence decision-making and outcomes at local, national and international levels in an environment that recognises them as competent social actors. (Save the Children 2003 and 2004)

This is only possible through the recognition of their right to participation.

The right to participate in decisions made on their behalf is one of the bundles of civil and political ri...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• List of Tables and Figures
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• 1. Children and Governance: Concept and Practice
• 2. Governance and Child Well-being: Evidence and Lessons from Africa
• 3. Measures to Implement the Convention on the Rights of the Child and Good Governance: The Case of Serbia
• 4. A Story of Neglect: Children in Peru's Public Budgets
• 5. Pedagogy of Writing Disabled Children's Rights into Governance
• 6. Overcoming Barriers for Getting Children out of Work and into Schools
• 7. Children's Impact on State Governance: Overarching Issues
• 8. 'Everywhere We Go, Our Presence is Felt': Reflections on a Governance and Budget-monitoring Project in South Africa
• 9. Monitoring the Public Budget with Adolescents: The Experience of Cedeca-Ceará
• About the Editor
• Notes on Contributors
• Index