The adult North and the young South: Reflections on the civilizing mission of children's rights

Abstract

The civilization of the children of the “savages” in the colonial world was seen as a crucial issue from early on was an inherent part of the colonization project in Africa, America and Oceania in the 19th century. The idea of civilizing “the savages,” today's South, through children has continued in the post‐colonial era with the development of mass‐schooling systems and various child‐focused development projects. This has led to an export of internationally defined standards for a “good childhood” through various foreign funded development programs in South. While many NGOs, legitimizing their work on the basis of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), are genuinely working for an improvement of children's conditions, they have also taken on the role as a second guardian in order to cultivate “proper” children and parents who can live up to the supposedly universal ideals of a “good childhood.” The article adopts a critical view on the child rights movement by shedding light on the crucial role, which NGOs play as civilizing institutions in the South. The article specifically draws attention to the double‐sided patronization of children and parents, and “infantilization” of nations in South, which implicitly lies beneath CRC and the child rights movement.