The Human Rights of Children in Conflict with the Law: Lessons for the U.S. Human Rights Movement

Abstract

INTRODUCTION To capture many of the most widespread and egregious children's rights violations in the United States, one need only follow the early life of an African-American child born into urban poverty. The child picks up the thread of intergenerational disadvantage when she finds herself in a racially segregated neighborhood drained of resources by historical redlining and more recent racially discriminatory lending practices (Squires 1992). One or both of the child's parents may have been arrested, possibly because of racially targeted policing practices, and incarcerated for an excessive period, thereby leaving the child vulnerable to physical and sexual abuse in violation of the child's right to be protected from violence (Braman and Wood 2003; Convention on the Rights of the Child [CRC] 1989, Articles 19, 20). The parents' legal rights over the child may be terminated by the state with a minimum of due process protections and the child made a ward of the state, in violation of the child's right against arbitrary separation from her parents (Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 [ASFA]; CRC, Articles 7, 9, 21). Meanwhile, the child's chaotic and underfunded school may not be the life raft it otherwise could be, depriving the child of the meaningful exercise of her right to an education ( Williams v . California 2000; CRC, Articles 28, 29).