Child Rights

Description

Over twenty years after the 1989 UN General Assembly vote to open the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) for signature and ratification by UN member states, the United States remains one of only two UN members not to have ratified it. The other is Somalia. Child Rights: The Movement, International Law, and Opposition explores the reasons for this resistance. It details the objections that have arisen to accepting this legally binding international instrument, which presupposes indivisible universal civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights, and gives children special protection due to their vulnerability. The resistance ranges from isolationist attitudes toward international law and concerns over the fiscal impact of implementation, to the value attached to education in a faith tradition and fears about the academic deterioration of public education. The contributors to the book reveal the significant positive influence that the CRC has had, despite not being ratified, on subjects such as educational research, child psychology, development ethics, normative ethics, and anthropology. The book also explores the growing homeschooling trend, which is often evangelically led in the US, but which is at loggerheads with an equally growing social science-based movement of experts and ethicists pressing for greater autonomy and freedom of expression for children. Looking beyond the US, the book also addresses some of the practical obstacles that have emerged to implementing the CRC in both developed countries (for example, Canada and the United Kingdom) and in poorer nations. This book, polemical and yet balanced, helps the reader evaluate both positive and the negative implications of this influential piece of international legislation from a variety of ethical, legal, and social science perspectives.
Acknowledgments

Introduction

Multidisciplinary Responses to the International

Rights of the Child, by Clark Butler

Part 1: The Movement and the UN Convention

1. Children’s Rights: An Historical and Conceptual Analysis, by Clark Butler

2. The Case for the Convention on the Rights of the Child from the Perspective of Child Psychology, by Katherine Covell

3. Developmental Considerations in Teaching Children’s Rights, by Katherine Covell and R. Brian Howe

4. Introducing Critical Thinking and Dialogue in Preschool, by Marie-France Daniel

Part 2: The Opposition

5. Nannies with Blue Berets: The UN Convention and the Invasion of National and Family Sovereignty, by Michael P. Farris

6. Educational Freedom and Human Rights: Exploring the Tensions between the Interests and Rights of Parents, Children, and the State, by Perry L. Glanzer

7. Implementing the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Canada: A Question of Commitment, by R. Brian Howe

8. Implementing the Convention on the Rights of the Child in the UK: A Problem of Political Will, by Claire Cassidy

Part 3: Children’s Rights in the Developing World

9. Motivating Political Responsibility for Children in Poor Countries, by Stephen L. Esquith

10. “The Right Child”: Challenges and Opportunities of Child Rights Legislation in Theory and Practice, by Krisjon Olson

11. Pragmatism, Capabilities, and Children’s Rights in Development Ethics, by Jennifer Caseldine-Bracht

Annotated bibliography

Contributors

Index

Sujets

• Child Advocacy
• Droit et juridique
• Law

Informations

• Publié par: Purdue University Press
• Date de parution: 15 juin 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781612492049
• Langue: English

Extrait

CHILD RIGHTS
THE MOVEMENT, INTERNATIONAL LAW, AND OPPOSITION
Child Rights
The Movement, International Law, and Opposition
E DITED BY C LARK B UTLER
Published in cooperation with The Human Rights Institute of the Center for Applied Ethics, Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne
P URDUE U NIVERSITY P RESS
W EST L AFAYETTE , I NDIANA
Copyright 2012 by Purdue University.
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Child Rights: The Movement, International Law, and Opposition / edited by Clark Butler.
p. cm. -- (Purdue University Human Rights Studies)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-55753-549-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1-61249-205-6 (epdf) -- ISBN 978-1-61249-204-9 (epub) 1. Children’s rights. 2. Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) 3. Children (International law) I. Butler, Clark, 1944-
HQ789.C42745 2012
342.08’772--dc23
2011047726
Contents
A CKNOWLEDGMENTS
I NTRODUCTION
M ULTIDISCIPLINARY R ESPONSES TO THE I NTERNATIONAL R IGHTS OF THE C HILD / Clark Butler
P ART 1: T HE M OVEMENT AND THE UN C ONVENTION
1. C HILDREN ’ S R IGHTS : A N H ISTORICAL AND C ONCEPTUAL A NALYSIS / Clark Butler
2. T HE C ASE FOR THE C ONVENTION ON THE R IGHTS OF THE C HILD FROM THE P ERSPECTIVE OF C HILD P SYCHOLOGY / Katherine Covell
3. D EVELOPMENTAL C ONSIDERATIONS IN T EACHING C HILDREN ’ S R IGHTS / Katherine Covell and R. Brian Howe
4. I NTRODUCING C RITICAL T HINKING AND D IALOGUE IN P RESCHOOL / Marie-France Daniel
P ART 2: T HE O PPOSITION
5. N ANNIES WITH B LUE B ERETS : T HE UN C ONVENTION AND THE I NVASION OF N ATIONAL AND F AMILY S OVEREIGNTY / Michael P. Farris
6. E DUCATIONAL F REEDOM AND H UMAN R IGHTS : E XPLORING THE T ENSIONS BETWEEN THE I NTERESTS AND R IGHTS OF P ARENTS , C HILDREN, AND THE S TATE / Perry L. Glanzer
7. I MPLEMENTING THE C ONVENTION ON THE R IGHTS OF THE C HILD IN C ANADA : A Q UESTION OF C OMMITMENT / R. Brian Howe
8. I MPLEMENTING THE C ONVENTION ON THE R IGHTS OF THE C HILD IN THE UK: A P ROBLEM OF P OLITICAL W ILL / Claire Cassidy
P ART 3: C HILDREN ’ S R IGHTS IN THE D EVELOPING W ORLD
9. M OTIVATING P OLITICAL R ESPONSIBILITY FOR C HILDREN IN P OOR C OUNTRIES / Stephen L. Esquith
10. “T HE R IGHT C HILD ”: C HALLENGES AND O PPORTUNITIES OF C HILD R IGHTS L EGISLATION IN T HEORY AND P RACTICE / Krisjon Olson
11. P RAGMATISM , C APABILITIES, AND C HILDREN ’ S R IGHTS IN D EVELOPMENT E THICS / Jennifer Caseldine-Bracht
A NNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
C ONTRIBUTORS
I NDEX
U NITED N ATIONS C ONVENTION ON THE R IGHTS OF THE C HILD http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/crc.htm
This book is dedicated to the children of the world, to those who can speak for themselves, and to others who sincerely endeavor to advocate for their rights and interests.
A CKNOWLEDGMENTS
We express appreciation to Indiana University for the New Perspectives Grant received in support of the 2006 conference on Moral Education, the United Nations, and Human Rights. That conference, organized by the Human Rights Institute on the Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW) campus, resulted in the research team behind the present book. We also express our appreciation for grants received from the campus Office of Research and External Support, from the College of Arts and Sciences, and from the Philosophy Department, which houses the Human Rights Institute, now expanded as the Center for Applied Ethics. Mark Savio, in his work as an Institute research assistant, is to be thanked for the painstaking work he did to put the annotation in proper form. To Mary Arnold Schwartz the editor is grateful for having reviewed his own essay from an external perspective, which was more difficult for him to gain than in the case of the other essays.
Introduction
Multidisciplinary Responses to the International Rights of the Child
C LARK B UTLER
The essays in this volume largely express ways in which the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) has been interpreted and used by those who are active in disciplines other than international human rights law. A large body of literature shows that there is considerable precedent for nonlegal, pedagogical, political, psychological, anthropological, and ethical reflection on the use of human rights law. Much of the moral conscience of humanity has been stored away in such law, and remains in that law ready to be retrieved by being interpreted as a statement of moral law. Historically, the concept of human rights arose as an ethical concept which preceded and inspired international human rights law. The ethical concept then led to a social, political, and pedagogical human rights movement, which only then led to the body of international human rights law as we know it. But the ethics and the movement never entirely dissolved into the law. Ethical human rights norms remain as the norms by which human rights law is justified, created, extended, qualified, or repealed. The movement and the opposition remain the larger context of the law. It uses the law as a tool, and critically evaluates, positively as well as negatively, the law from various nonlegal perspectives. Thus the essays in this volume largely fall into what has come to be known as critical philosophy of law.
Michael Freeman is an example of a scholar working in human rights studies not limited to the discipline of law. He reflects that “the lawyers who dominate human rights studies” sometimes limit themselves to the view that “human rights are what human rights law says they are.” 1 He notes that “the concept of human rights is, to a considerable extent, though not wholly, legal ,” and that “the UN introduced the concept of human rights into international law and politics.” 2 But the United Nations introduced human rights into international law because they already had an important place in moral philosophy. Richard Pierre Claude, founding editor of Human Rights Quarterly , writes that “human rights are no longer the solitary domain of lawyers, but increasingly the central agenda for action and inquiry for thinking people worldwide.” 3 Yet it is equally true that, because of international human rights law, human rights are no longer the solitary domain of ethicists.
The Convention on the Rights of the Child makes reference to itself as legally “binding” (article 50). That is how the discipline of international law interprets the convention, which should never be discounted. It is a strict constructionist textual interpretation of the wording of the law. But this formal interpretation of the legal text is only one way of interpreting it. If we take it as the only way of interpreting it, we discount the importance of complementing such an interpretation by contextual interpretation, specifically in the international social context in which the convention is only weakly enforced. Thomas Hobbes and legal positivists generally have argued that the text of the law is correctly interpreted contextually and sociologically, not merely textually. Wherever it is disobeyed with impunity, it is at most paper, not genuine law.
From this perspective, what is a true legal text depends on going beyond the text to see whether penalties actually exist for disobeying it. The convention is admittedly legally binding in the heaven of international human rights law, but that heaven—though it has begun to descend to earth in certain world regions, especially the European Union—is still far from fully doing so around the world in any way that would justify the actual existence of children’s rights, as distinct from sometimes contested ethical norms. As a matter of sociological fact, the convention clearly fails to bind the behavior of many nations that have nonetheless ratified it. But the less the convention is able to justify itself as enforceable law, the greater the importance of shifting attention to its function as a pedagogical instrument and standard for further moral education.
We need to be clear, however, about what it means to say the CRC is “legally binding.” It does not mean that all ratifying nations are legally bound to legislate the children’s rights in the convention as domestic law. It means, rather, that ratifying nations are legally bound to participate in the monitoring procedure spelled out in the convention. They are legally bound to show that they are seriously trying to legally implement children’s rights, to file reports on their success in implementing those rights, to be examined by the UN Child Rights Committee, and to receive recommendations from the committee. They are not legally bound to follow the recommendations or to actually pass domestic legislation, however great the displeasure which the committee may show toward such countries in future reports. States sometimes feel conflicting pressures from different governmental or nongovernmental agents of the world human rights movement, and sometimes have to make hard decisions and set their own budgetary priorities.
Yet even in this weaker sense of a “legally binding” human rights convention, the CRC fails to consistently bind in fact the action of ratifying nations that fail to submit reports in the required time frames, that submit frivolous or unresponsive reports, or that do not seriously attempt to follow the committee’s recommendations. No punitive actions beyond shaming and blaming exist to enforce compliance with what nations have legally bound t