Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T15:29:57.319Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The rights of the child in global perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 February 2016

Abstract

This paper considers the development of the idea of children's rights, firstly at an international level, and then nationally and locally. Focussing on the central ‘right’ as defined by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) – that ‘the child … should grow up in a family environment, in an atmosphere of happiness, love, and understanding’ – the paper points to a contradiction implicit here between the child imagined as a rights-bearing individual and the child imagined as in need of protection, by the family and, if necessary, by the state.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Australian Government: Attorney-General's Department (2008) History of intercountry adoption in Australia, accessed 26 January 2010, <http://www.ag.gov.au/www/agd/agd.nsf/Page/IntercountryAdoption_HistoryofintercountryadoptioninAustralia>..>Google Scholar
Australian Government: Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (2009) Protecting children is everyone's business: National Framework for Protecting Australia's Children 2009-20, Principles, accessed 26 January 2010, <http://www.fahcsia.gov.au/sa/families/pubs/framework_protecting_children/Pages/default.aspx>..>Google Scholar
Commonwealth of Australia: National Human Rights Consultation (2009) National Human Rights Consultation Report, accessed 26 January 2010, <http://www.ag.gov.au/>..>Google Scholar
Dillon, S. (2003) ‘Making legal regimes for international adoption reflect human rights principles: Transforming the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child with the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption’, Boston International Law Journal, vol 21.Google Scholar
Guggenheim, M. (2005) What's wrong with children's rights, Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Lake, M. (1999) Getting equal: The history of Australian feminism, Chapter 3, St Leonards, N.S.W: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
League of Nations Declaration of the Rights of the Child (1924) League of Nations O.J. Spec. Supp. 21, at 43 (1924), University of Minnesota Human Rights Library, accessed 19 January 2010, <http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/>..>Google Scholar
Murphy, K., Quartly, M. & Cuthbert, D. (2009) ‘“In the best interests of the child”: Mapping the (re) emergence of pro-adoption politics in contemporary Australia’, Australian Journal of Politics and History, Vol 55, No 2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), accessed 19 January 2010, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Declaration_of_Human_Rights#History>..>Google Scholar
United Nations Declaration of the Rights of the Child (1959), accessed 19 January 2010, <http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Declaration_of_the_Rights_of_the_Child>..>Google Scholar
United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), accessed 19 January 2010, <http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/crc.htm>..>Google Scholar
United Nations Convention on Protection of Children and Co-Operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption (1993), accessed 26 January 2010, <http://www.hcch.net/index_en.php?act=conventions.text&cid=69>..>Google Scholar
Victorian Government Consolidated Legislation: Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act (2006), accessed 26 January 2010, <http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/vic/conso_act/cohrara2006433/>..>Google Scholar
White, S.C. (2002) ‘Being, becoming and relationship: Conceptual challenges of a child rights approach in development’, Journal of International Development, Vol 14, No. 8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar