We explain what children’s rights are and how they came about. We also explain their general characteristics and importance.
What are children’s rights?
The rights of the child or children’s rights are a principle of legal norms whose fundamental purpose is to protect the interests and needs of children, in order to guarantee them a pleasant entry into the world, protected from the ambitions, inequities and selfishness that prevail there.
It is worth clarifying that the idea of childhood has not always existed, since in previous times the child was basically considered a small person, therefore subject to the same duties and obligations as an adult. The contemporary idea of childhood as a protected stage of human life was born more or less in the 20th century.
Fortunately, children’s rights today they are part of the most uniform and accepted legal codes in most democratic countries in the world, although it is true that in many cases what these rights express on paper and what happens in the real world do not always have to do with each other.
However, the fact that there is a legal apparatus for the protection of children and adolescents is a step towards the legal defense of certain universal human values.
See also: Public international law.
The concept of childhood
Childhood can be defined as period of human life that goes from birth to adolescence, in strict terms. This is the concept used in most ordinary cases.
However, legallya child is every citizen even if he or she has not yet reached the age of majoritywhich is usually between 18 and 21 years of age, depending on the legislation of each country.
During this stage, the citizen is considered protected by special laws that protect him and they exonerate him of certain crimes (in reality they blame their parents or legal guardians for them), realizing that they are not fully formed individuals before the law. This also prevents them from having access to certain rights, such as voting.
Human rights
The rights of the child are inserted in human rights fundamental, as contemplated in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
These are the minimum rights of every existing human beinginalienable, non-transferable, irrevocable and non-waivable, which should be preserved and fulfilled by all people and all institutions in the world.
In fact, The violation of these rights is considered a crime against humanity. and they never proscribe, and are punishable in any existing legislation.
Continue in: Human rights.
History of children’s rights
Children’s rights have not always been enshrined in law, and as has been said, their invention is quite recent. Until the beginning of industrial capitalism, Children were subject to the same work obligations as adultsand there was no compulsory school attendance except for the elite.
It is often thought that in the aftermath of the First World War, the devastation in Europe and other regions of the world was particularly cruel to children and adolescents, Caught in a political and military conflict that was beyond themand the League of Nations (forerunner of the UN) wanted to support a minimum legal framework that would protect them from the horrors of the adult world.
Geneva Declaration
After the end of the First World War (1914-1918), the Save the Children organization led by the British social activist Eglantyne Jebb proposed the idea of a legal regulation for the protection of children of the world, an idea that crystallized in the first Declaration of the Rights of the Child during the International Alliance of said organization.
This text was sent to the League of Nations, which then brought together world powers in an attempt to organize internationally, and It was the first attempt at a social rights framework (not civil) of infants, until then subject to the guardianship of charities and religious institutions.
This declaration had five articles:
- The child must be in a place where he can develop normally, from a spiritual and material point of view.
- The hungry child must be fed, the sick cared for, the disabled helped, the maladjusted re-educated and the abandoned or orphans taken in.
- In the event of a disaster, the child must have priority in care.
- The child must have the conditions to earn a living and avoid all forms of exploitation.
- The child must be educated in duties and service to others.
1958 Declaration
This second step in the universalization of children’s rights was taken in 1959 at the United Nations, which at that time It had only 78 member countries.
It is based on the 1924 declaration and expands its contents to 10 articles, which recognize the child’s fundamental civil rightssuch as the right to have an identity (a name and a nationality), to be protected from all forms of racial, ethnic or religious discrimination, and to enjoy the legal protection that allows one to fully develop into a good citizen.
Children’s rights convention
The third step in terms of children’s rights was taken in 1989 as an international treaty of the United Nationsin which the special protection of which children, as full citizens who enjoy the same rights as adults, must be protected by special laws to guarantee their physical, mental and spiritual development is fully enshrined in 54 different articles. .
This statement has The virtues of turning children into clear subjects of lawbut at the same time making adults responsible. It has been recognized by 192 sovereign states, with the exception of Somalia and the United States of America.
Institutions that protect children’s rights
Exists a significant number of institutions that watch over the Rights of the Childapart from obviously the United Nations itself, which has organizations to ensure the application of this treaty in its signatory countries.
Other institutions such as UNICEF, also created by the UN after World War IIin charge of numerous campaigns in favor of the educational, social and health rights of children, especially in developing continents.
Importance of children’s rights
The universalization of these rights It is key in the formation of a better worldsince caring for today’s children means predicting how tomorrow’s adults will think.
Only by attending to vulnerable child populations can a more equitable tomorrow be built.
Threats to children’s rights
War, famine and malnutritionas well as school dropouts, are some of the great enemies to be combated by child defense institutions.
Child recruitment for war conflicts, sexual abuse and human traffickingin addition to drug addiction, are also particularly cruel activities for children.
Children’s rights challenges
Despite the importance of its efforts, the model of protection of children’s rights appears powerless in the face of consumer culture and to the brutal global inequalities.
Child protection does not exist apart from the major global problems that concern adults, so It cannot be treated as an isolated fact from the whole.