Queering children’s rights: a critical queer analysis of the UNCRC

Abstract

ABSTRACT While there is increasing attention for LGBTQIA+ concerns within human rights, the legal instruments and academic discussions regarding children’s rights remain largely silent on issues involving sexuality and gender. Due to pervasive protectionist narratives and heteronormative assumptions governing modern childhood, children’s rights implicitly limit the expression of (queer) children and lack the tools and guidance to navigate complex queer disputes. In this context, this paper explores the world’s leading document on children’s rights – the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) – from a queer theoretical perspective, uncovering how children’s rights are interwoven with social constructs surrounding gender and sexuality. In doing so, this paper first explores the relevance of queering the UNCRC and sets out a queer theoretical framework within the human rights context. Through this lens, finally, the paper discusses three overarching areas of queer critique within the UNCRC: 1) the construction of childhood, 2) child sexuality and gender and 3) the normalising impacts of restrictions on child agency on queer children. It concludes that the UNCRC has great potential to catalyse the implementation of LGBTQIA-focused protections, but more work is needed to clarify and strengthen the legal position of the queer child within its ambit.