Authors:
Earls; F. Pages: 6 - 16 Abstract: This article introduces the themes of children’s rights and citizenship and surveys the authors’ contributions to this volume of The Annals. The volume marks the 20th anniversary of the United Nations General Assembly’s adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). As the most widely ratified of all human rights covenants, adoption of the CRC represents a landmark achievement in the history of childhood. Yet there remains a noticeable gap in its implementation. The United States has not ratified the CRC. The contributions to this volume take the CRC as a starting point along the path of achieving functional citizenship for children. Issues of child protection, political maturity, deliberative democracy, and intergenerational nondomination are covered. Several examples of empirical research on children’s participation in social and political matters are provided. Recommendations are made to advance the case of child citizenship over the near term. This includes the need to urge the United States to ratify the CRC. PubDate: 2010-12-22T14:47:36-08:00 DOI: 10.1177/0002716210383637 Issue No:Vol. 633, No. 1 (2010)
Authors:
Fass; P. S. Pages: 17 - 29 Abstract: The United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) was a by-product of international commitments to human rights, but its history lies in the complex and contradictory developments of the twentieth century, when elevated expectations regarding the welfare of children confronted the realities of war. In the late nineteenth century, material conditions and reform efforts redefined the lives of children in the Western world and created new sentiments about childhood and investments in children’s progress. World Wars I and II exposed children’s acute vulnerability and the myth of inevitable progress. After each of these wars, defining what was owed to children and how best to meet their needs was part of larger international negotiations regarding power and prestige. Throughout this period, the involvement of women, a new Swedish presence in international diplomacy, and the growing role of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) affected what would become a rearticulation of child welfare and protection and a more active commitment to children’s rights. PubDate: 2010-12-22T14:47:36-08:00 DOI: 10.1177/0002716210382388 Issue No:Vol. 633, No. 1 (2010)
Authors:
Van Bueren; G. Pages: 30 - 51 Abstract: This article discusses the author’s concept of multigenerational citizenship, arguing that for citizenship to be relevant for children, there needs to be a more flexible and relational approach to citizenship. Tom Paine’s theories are expanded upon, by examining the increasing acceptance, by both international and regional fora in both political and human rights, of a child’s autonomy in bringing complaints to a human rights body. The article examines the recent developments in the move toward establishing a complaints mechanism under the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and argues that this is an important element of international child citizenship. The article also examines the progress made in national courts toward child citizenship, which has helped to change the international consensus on providing an international remedy for breaches of child citizenship rights. The article compares the growing acceptance of children as international citizens by the European Court of Human Rights and under the specially designed African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child’s complaints mechanism. Because of all these developments, the author rejects the assumption that regeneration is needed to reenergize the international social movement for children as citizens, arguing that such pessimism is an oversimplification of both the achievements and failures of the CRC. PubDate: 2010-12-22T14:47:36-08:00 DOI: 10.1177/0002716210383113 Issue No:Vol. 633, No. 1 (2010)
Authors:
Mauras; M. Pages: 52 - 65 Abstract: After 20 years of implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), it is increasingly clear that states bear the responsibility to promote, guarantee, respect, and fulfill the realization of children’s rights by all members of the national and international communities. An initial emphasis on legal reforms to adapt national law to the CRC—absolutely necessary but not sufficient—needs to give space to changes in other important areas of public action: economic policy and financing; social policy and administration; and public participation, including that of children. Enforcement and justiciability of rights need to be addressed today to face questions about public policy, systems, and institutions in the long term. The evolution of social policies in Latin America and the Caribbean, from neoliberal policies to systems of social protection, illustrates that only a comprehensive and equity-based view of social and economic policy, underpinned by the four principles of children’s rights (nondiscrimination, best interests of the child, survival and development, and the right to be heard), will satisfy the requirements for implementation of the CRC. PubDate: 2010-12-22T14:47:36-08:00 DOI: 10.1177/0002716210382993 Issue No:Vol. 633, No. 1 (2010)
Authors:
Rizzini; I. Pages: 66 - 79 Abstract: This article explores the ideas behind the promise of citizenship to children in Brazil. The human rights of children has become a very important issue in Brazil. This has been especially true since the inclusion of Article 227 in the 1988 Constitution referring to children’s rights and the approval of the Statute on the Child and the Adolescent in 1990, less than a year after the ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The article examines the changing discourse connected to what was promised and what the law actually accomplished. The conclusion focuses on some of the most relevant improvements affecting children’s lives and some of the remaining challenges Brazilians face in the attempt to keep the promises made in the Constitution and the statute. PubDate: 2010-12-22T14:47:36-08:00 DOI: 10.1177/0002716210383950 Issue No:Vol. 633, No. 1 (2010)
Authors:
Bartholet; E. Pages: 80 - 101 Abstract: This article discusses the significance of the United States’ ratification of the CRC, concluding that even if the treaty is not self-executing, ratification would make a major difference. It would enable the United States to better promote children’s rights abroad, and it would push the United States to develop its domestic law in dramatically new directions that empower children. The CRC provides children with powerful affirmative rights and imposes reciprocal duties on nation-states. It provides rights to participate, including rights to be heard and to make decisions on personal and political matters; rights to receive important benefits, including health, support, and education; rights to protection against maltreatment; and rights to nurturing parental care. All this contrasts with U.S. law’s negative rights tradition, its emphasis on parental rights, limited recognition of children’s rights, and related restriction of state power to protect children. U.S. ratification could have a positive impact, particularly in connection with parental relationship rights and related maltreatment issues. However, there is also a risk of negative impact, given the problematic CRC provisions on international and transracial adoption. The solution is ratification with a reservation regarding Articles 20 and 21. PubDate: 2010-12-22T14:47:36-08:00 DOI: 10.1177/0002716210382389 Issue No:Vol. 633, No. 1 (2010)
Authors:
Hernandez, D. J; Denton, N. A, Blanchard, V. L. Pages: 102 - 127 Abstract: The rights that the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) enumerates include the rights to (1) an adequate standard of living, (2) an education directed toward the development of the child’s fullest potential, (3) the highest attainable standard of health, and (4) the child’s own cultural identity and use of his or her own language. The CRC states that these rights shall be ensured regardless of various statuses of children, including race, ethnic origin, national origin, and language. This article presents a statistical baseline for assessing the diversity of children in the United States with regard to these statuses, presents results for statistical indicators of well-being for children distinguished by these statuses, and discusses public policies to reduce inequalities relevant to these rights. PubDate: 2010-12-22T14:47:36-08:00 DOI: 10.1177/0002716210383205 Issue No:Vol. 633, No. 1 (2010)
Authors:
Bohman; J. Pages: 128 - 140 Abstract: The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) emphasizes the importance of the temporal dimension of childhood and children’s need for special protection. Such protection is necessary because of their susceptibility to domination, especially intergenerational domination. The same is true for past and future generations, where such domination includes the domination of and by the current generation of children, especially around intergenerational, public goods important for a good human life. Such an account of intergenerational justice captures the focus of the CRC’s Preamble on improving the quality of the lives of children. PubDate: 2010-12-22T14:47:36-08:00 DOI: 10.1177/0002716210383114 Issue No:Vol. 633, No. 1 (2010)
Authors:
Rehfeld; A. Pages: 141 - 166 Abstract: The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) justifiably emphasizes welfare over participation rights of children for two reasons. First, children are by nature an at-risk population. Second, democratic citizenship rights require a minimal bundle of cognitive and emotional capacity—which may be called "political maturity"—that children, again by nature, lack. However, the CRC goes too far in prioritizing welfare over participation, again for two reasons. First, millions of children have their basic welfare needs met, and second, participation would be useful in cultivating the very political maturity that citizens need. In this article, the author argues that participatory institutions should be designed to further the interests of children, cultivate their political maturity, and mitigate the harm that giving power to the politically immature might cause. The author discusses three institutional designs that might achieve this result (fractional voting, national electoral constituencies, and political spending accounts) and discusses how federalism might also help to implement these designs. PubDate: 2010-12-22T14:47:36-08:00 DOI: 10.1177/0002716210383656 Issue No:Vol. 633, No. 1 (2010)
Authors:
James; A. Pages: 167 - 179 Abstract: This article explores notions of the "child as citizen" and "children’s citizenship" in the context of possibilities and promises for the rights of children that are laid out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. It poses the question, Can "children’s citizenship" ever be fully accomplished for and/or by children' The article begins with an examination of contemporary theories of citizenship and considers the grounds for children’s citizenship in the light of the ways in which "childhood" is culturally, socially, economically, and politically constructed in different societies. It suggests that in social investment states, such as the United Kingdom, the contemporary cultural politics of childhood mean that children’s citizenship remains ambiguous. What is needed, the article suggests, is a greater understanding at the local level of how children’s experiences as members of society unfold. Thus, taking England as a case study, and drawing on some empirical research with children’s experiences in children’s hospitals, the article illustrates the ways in which adults’ ideas about childhood limit children’s agency and actions, thereby denying them status as citizens. PubDate: 2010-12-22T14:47:36-08:00 DOI: 10.1177/0002716210383642 Issue No:Vol. 633, No. 1 (2010)
Authors:
Torney-Purta, J; Amadeo, J.-A. Pages: 180 - 200 Abstract: This article is based on the assumption that the right to vote in national elections is not an essential dimension of citizenship for early adolescents as long as adolescents’ other competencies and attitudes are nurtured in their everyday settings. The article addresses the issue of children or early adolescents and their political and civic participation from three perspectives. First, it examines how human rights and action in community settings have been viewed across the several decades in which political socialization research has been conducted. The idea of emergent participatory citizenship for young adolescents is introduced. Second, the authors examine findings from survey research to determine whether the socialization and developmental experiences of the majority of early adolescents entering the twenty-first century have resulted in attitudes and skills appropriate to being full citizens. The third section examines studies using qualitative methodologies—observations and interviews—to show how the spaces for adolescents to exercise participatory and deliberative capabilities can be enhanced. PubDate: 2010-12-22T14:47:36-08:00 DOI: 10.1177/0002716210384220 Issue No:Vol. 633, No. 1 (2010)
Authors:
Hart, D; Atkins, R. Pages: 201 - 222 Abstract: American 16- and 17-year-olds ought to be allowed to vote in state and national elections. This claim rests upon a line of argument that begins with an exegesis of legal and philosophical notions of citizenship that identify core qualities of citizenship: membership, concern for rights, and participation in society. Each of these qualities is present in rudimentary form in childhood and adolescence. Analyses of national survey data demonstrate that by 16 years of age—but not before— American adolescents manifest levels of development in each quality of citizenship that are approximately the same as those apparent in young American adults who are allowed to vote. The lack of relevant differences in capacities for citizenship between 16- and 17-year-olds and those legally enfranchised makes current laws arbitrary, denying those younger than age 18 the right to vote. Awarding voting rights to 16- and 17-year-olds is important, given the changing age demographics in the country, which have resulted in the growing block of older voters displacing the interests of younger Americans in the political arena. Finally, the authors critically examine claims that adolescents are neither neurologically nor socially mature enough to vote responsibly and conclude that empirical evidence and fairness suggest that 16- and 17-year-olds ought to be awarded the vote. PubDate: 2010-12-22T14:47:36-08:00 DOI: 10.1177/0002716210382395 Issue No:Vol. 633, No. 1 (2010)
Authors:
Carlson, M; Earls, F. Pages: 223 - 242 Abstract: Given the host of tragic events that children experience, it is often compelling for well-intended adults to respond in a protective and charitable fashion. The child rights approach asks for more. Building on their collective experiences in the developmental and social sciences, the authors present in roughly chronological fashion a synopsis of the theoretical explorations and scientific evaluation that completes a framework to advance the status of children as citizens. The recognition of the agency and capability of a child and the dynamic and enduring source of socialization from and social integration within the community are fundamental to this project. The participatory rights enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child serve as an impetus and inspiration to this project, the Young Citizens Program. What began with small-scale deliberative groups in Chicago matured into a cluster randomized controlled trial in northern Tanzania. PubDate: 2010-12-22T14:47:36-08:00 DOI: 10.1177/0002716210383648 Issue No:Vol. 633, No. 1 (2010)
Authors:
Fonseca, C; Bujanda, M. E. Pages: 243 - 262 Abstract: This article explains several core aspects of the experience of the Omar Dengo Foundation of Costa Rica in the development of the Deliberative Capabilities in School Age Children project, a set of citizenship education programs based on the conception of children as citizens and on a particular conception of the role of digital technologies in the promotion of children’s high-order skills. It analyzes the outcomes of the program designed for elementary schools and presents the lessons learned in the process of scaling up the initiative from its inception as a pilot to its implementation as a regular after-school program within the Costa Rican National Program of Educational Informatics. PubDate: 2010-12-22T14:47:36-08:00 DOI: 10.1177/0002716210383657 Issue No:Vol. 633, No. 1 (2010)
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