Maturing Children’s Rights Theory

Abstract

Children’s rights research is an under-theorised field of studies. The Convention on the Rights of the Child (crc) has gained the status of source and (“theoretical”) framework of research, policy and practice, thus making most research efforts a matter of discussing implementation. This paper wishes to advance a critical, that is,politicallycommitted theoretical agenda for children’s rights research that is not bounded by the institutional framework (i.e.crc) but intends to freely think it. Programmatically, it delves on the following issues, that call for further research, of the like that might start filling in this theoretical void: the position of children’s rights research within the wider interdisciplinary field of childhood studies, children’s citizenship (instead of “participation”), the normative legitimacy of children’s rights/laws, children’s law as a branch of antidiscrimination law, and the necessary independence of children’s laws from children’s sciences.