Children′s Rights in Practice

Phil Jones, Gary Walker, Phil Jones, Gary Walker

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9781849203807, 9781849203791
• eBook ISBN: 9781446259702
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

Considering the rights of the child is now central to all fields involving children and to good multi-agency working. This book offers an explanation of the theoretical issues and the key policy developments that are crucial to all professions, and helps the reader to understand children?s rights in relation to their role in working with children and young people. Looking at education, health, social care and welfare, it bridges the gap between policy and practice for children from Birth to 19 years.

Chapters cover:

- the child?s right to play

- youth justice and children?s rights

- the voice of the child

- ethical dilemmas in different contexts

- involvement, participation and decision making

- safeguarding and child protection

- social justice and exclusion

This book helps the reader understand what constitutes good practice, whilst considering the advantages and tensions involved in working across disciplines to implement children?s rights against a complex legislative and social policy backdrop.

Essential reading for undergraduate and graduate students on Early Years, Early Childhood Studies, Childhood and Youth, Education, Law, Social Work, Play and Psychology courses, it is relevant to professionals working across education, health and social work.

Part 1

Children’s Rights in Practice: an Overview of Key Themes and Debates

1

What Are Children’s Rights? Contemporary Developments and Debates

Phil Jones

Chapter Overview

This chapter will introduce the broad context for children’s rights, drawing on areas of recent research and enquiry that illustrate current developments, debates and tensions. This will include looking at the need for rights and the effects of a rights perspective on different areas of children’s lives. It will also look at some of the tensions which have emerged concerning children’s rights. The idea of child rights has developed from the convergence of different pressures for change. This chapter introduces the different ways this is happening, giving brief examples of the kinds of policies that are emerging and showing how changes in long-held attitudes and practices relate to child rights. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) is the touchstone for work being developed in many countries. Key articles from the UNCRC and other sources such as the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) will be outlined and linked to the sections of this book which consider their implications for different areas of work. Criticisms of the UNCRC and challenges to its implementation are also explored. After over two decades of living with the UNCRC there is a wealth of experiences of the practical application of the Convention in different areas of children’s lives. This section introduces examples that link child rights to their lived experiences.

Rights and responsibilities

In day-to-day contact adults in working situations relate to children in many different roles and contexts. This book examines and supports such relationships in relation to child rights. One way of looking at these concerns how we engage with areas such as policy or practice in terms of ‘rights’ and how these affect working with children. There are many definitions of rights, normally drawing on broad conventions or legislation such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the UK’s Human Rights Act 1990 (HRA) but developed for different audiences. The UK Government, in a publication aimed at young people, used the following broad definition:

Q.	What is a Right?
A.	This is something you should always be able to do, to have, to know, to say or to be protected from.
Q.	What is a Responsibility?
A.	This is something you should do for other people, for society or for the environment.
(Ministry of Justice, 2009: 5)

Here child rights are connected to the responsibilities children are seen to have (see Chapter 3 for more details on this perspective). Another definition sees this connection differently. It sees rights developing from ‘long-established moral and legal traditions’ and situates child rights and responsibilities within the idea of a contract:

The core concept of a right is that of an agreement or ‘social contract’ which is established between the person(s) who holds a right (often referred to as a ‘rights-holder’) and the person(s) or institutions(s) which then have obligations and responsibilities in relation to the realisation of that right (often referred to as the ‘duty Bearer’) (Save the Children, 2005: 14).

An example from Franklin helps illustrate a practical implication of the relationship between rights, responsibility and this contract: ‘Children have a right to education but they can only exercise that right if government locally and nationally assumes responsibility for its provision’ (Franklin, 2002: 27).

Such rights and responsibilities for children, and related ‘contracts’ for their definition and implementation, are linked to different conventions, acts and laws. The following sections explore the ways child rights are currently defined and implemented.

What are child rights?

The Participation Works organisation foregrounds the way children and young people’s rights relate to the ECHR and the UK’s HRA, which commit all public organisations to follow the rights in the ECHR. These include early years provision, play work, schools, children’s services, health, youth and social services, the police and youth courts. Examples of the ways the HRA relates to children and young people are explained by Participation Works as including:

Article 5 – If you are arrested or charged with committing an offence, you should be promptly told the reasons why. You should be given information in a language and way that you understand …

Article 6 – You have the right to fair trial. This means you should be able to follow what is going on in court, and you should have a lawyer to help you and question people giving evidence against you. You have the right to an interpreter …

Article 8 – This is your right to respect for private and family life. This right covers many different matters relating to your own choices and decision making, and whether others can interfere with these … It also protects your relationships with your family, and is relevant when decisions are being made about who you should live with …

Article 9 – This is your right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This is relevant to the choices you make for yourself about what you believe and if you follow a religion or not.

Article 10 – This is your right to freedom of expression. This includes what you wear, as well as giving and receiving ideas and information …

Article 11 – This is your right to peaceful assembly and association – being on a public protest for example, or being able to form and join groups, such as school councils, trade unions and political parties …

(Participation Works, 2009)

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted by the United Nations in 1989. Child, within the UNCRC, is defined as an individual aged 17 or under. Within the convention children have a set of economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights. The rights guaranteed by the Convention are afforded to all children without exception. The UNCRC is defined as an agreement between countries and consists of a number of articles. Specific governments need to ratify such a convention. This means that they agree to obey the articles set out in that convention. Ratification UK ratified the Convention in December 1991: by doing this the UK government has incorporated the UNCRC into its national legal framework and confirmed that the government should make sure that every child has all the rights outlined in the treaty. Most world governments ratified the Convention in full, but the UK government would not do this and entered specific reservations about some of the articles. Some of these, such as the ‘UK Reservations’ on Articles 10 and 37, were lifted in October 2008. The United Nations’ Committee for the Rights of the Child reviews specific countries’ responses and issues periodic reviews.

A number of authors have indicated that different areas of rights will be foregrounded, or understood and acted on differently, depending on the political, social and economic contexts of different societies. So, for example, in some situations child rights in relation to child labour or poverty will be at the fore of attention for change, whereas in other societies issues concerning change in relation to children’s participation in decisions about the services they access may be given priority. How action develops is usually arrived at through pressure and debate involving children and young people, lobbying groups, workers or government. As this book will show, this process is one that involves powerful forces that work both for positive change in children and young people’s lives, and those that act to preserve or increase ways of working, or seeing children, that have a negative impact on their lives. The ratification of the UNCRC includes over 40 specific rights for children in the UK. These are prioritised and summarised in different ways. The following material introduces different ways of approaching the idea and practice of child rights.

One much-used approach, for example, sees the UNCRC as concerning three broad areas: provision, protection and participation. Some organisations, such as Save the Children, approach the UNCRC by describing the rights enshrined in the convention as falling into four broad categories:

• the right to survive;
• the right to be safe;
• the right to belong;
• the right to develop.

Unicef foregrounds what it calls the four core principles of the Convention and locates these in some of the specific articles of the UNCRC:

• non-discrimination, or universality (Article 2);
• best interests of the child (Article 3);
• right to life, survival and development (Article 6);
• respect for the views of the child (Article 12).

Unicef and the ‘four core principles’ of the UNCRC

Non-discrimination is reflected in articles such as Article 2 which states that signatories ‘shall respect and ensure the rights set forth in the present Convention to each child within their jurisdiction without discrimination of any kind, irrespective of the child’s or his or her parent’s or legal guardian’s race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property, disability, birth or other status’ (Unicef, 2009: 9). Unicef foregrounds the special relevance to the situation of children living with disability and to undocumented migrants, and emphasises the article’s statement that children must also be protected from discrimination that is based on the beliefs of their parents, other family members or legal guardians. Other practical considerations considered within this book include the ways in which children are made aware of their rights in relation to non-discrimination (see pages 110–16), when tensions occur between the rights of children and those of parents in areas such as sexuality and gender (see page 18, see also pages 143–4) and where the UK government discriminates against children, for example in relation to those who are asylum seekers or refugees (see page 23, see also page 33).

The best interests of the child are presented in Article 3 which states that, ‘in all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or private social welfare institutions, courts of law, administrative authorities or legislative bodies, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration’. Such articles and the concept of ‘best interests’ relate to the legal protection of children and to evidence-based care of children. Unicef particularly notes that this principle requires governments and other agencies involved in provision, legislation, policies and programmes ‘to review any of their actions for the impact on children’ (Unicef, 2009: 9, author’s emphasis). Other practical considerations for children include how to work with the concept of best interests in relation to areas such as youth justice (see page 195), or in complex dynamics such as family break-up or in child protection cases (see pages 60–1, see also page 166) or challenges to practice which purports to be in a child’s best interests but is actually reflecting adult desires and agendas (see page 19, see also pages 212–13).

The right to life, survival and development can be seen in Article 6 where the Convention says that ‘every child has the inherent right to life’ and that states parties ‘shall ensure to the maximum extent possible the survival and development of the child’. Unicef notes that these rights are connected to the enjoyment of the ‘highest attainable standard’ of provision in areas such as health services and to an ‘adequate standard’ of living (Unicef, 2009: 9). Practical considerations for children include: issues with regard to child protection (see pages 165–6) and health promotion (see page 141) and issues concerning poverty (see page 65) and in relation to care (see page 144).

Respect for the views of the child concerns children’s right to have their views heard and respected. Article 12 of the UNCRC says that states ‘shall assure to the child who ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• About the editors and contributors
• Preface
• Part 1 Children’s rights in practice: An overview of key themes and debates
• Part 2 Rights and service provision: Areas of practice
• Part 3 Reviewing children’s rights in practice
• Contextual glossary
• References
• Index