United Nations Convention On The Rights Of The Child Research Articles

Ethics in child research: rights, reason and responsibilities

This paper explores the nature of the relationship between research ethics and children's rights by examining the historical origins of both concepts and then analysing several contemporary research ethics guidelines from a rights-based perspective. The analysis demonstrates that while many research ethics guidelines may contain references to human rights principles, implicit or otherwise, there is often a lack definition about what is meant by ‘rights’ and about the correlation between human rights principles and research ethics in practice. Within social sciences research, in particular, research ethics guidelines, including those guidelines specific to child research, noticeably lack direct reference to human rights principles such as those articulated within the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). The paper argues that as child researchers do not stand apart from their obligations to protect and promote children's rights, research ethics guidelines relied upon by child researchers need to be informed by human rights principles and that those researchers may draw upon the UNCRC, in particular, to inform their consideration of inevitable ethical dilemmas arising within child research.

Do Children Have Rights or Do Their Rights Have to be Realised? The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child as a Frame of Reference for Pedagogical Action

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) is presented and understood as the primary reference point regarding questions of children's rights. However, the UNCRC is not a neutral instrument deployed to meet the rights of children: it embodies a specific perception of the child, childhood and citizenship. The interpretation of the UNCRC from the point of view of children's legal status emphasises the autonomy of children; the focus is on the rights that children possess. Conversely, the social-political interpretation of the UNCRC addresses the question of how the rights of children can be realised. It is suggested that distinguishing between these interpretations is essential with regard to questions of pedagogy and education.

CHILDREN, THE UNCRC, AND FAMILY LAW IN ENGLAND AND WALES

There is no doubt that, overall, there has been a great deal of activity in relation to children's rights under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) since it was ratified by the UK government in 1991. Of particular significance in the context of family law, however, are the provisions of Article 12, which have in many ways proved to be more problematic than other provisions, not least because, in the context of family law, children's participation rights are necessarily juxtaposed with the long‐standing and hitherto unchallenged rights of parents to make important decisions about family life. The reorganisation in 2001 of the family court welfare services in England and Wales with the creation of the Children and Family Courts Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS), generated a new impetus for the consideration of children's participation rights and, at an organizational level, considerable progress has been made in embracing the provisions of the UNCRC. More problematic, however, is the acceptance of children's participation in making decisions about their futures by adults using and working in the family justice system. At the level of the courts, judicial attitudes are slow to change and in England, as court judgments often demonstrate, these are firmly rooted in a view of children as being incompetent in such issues; at the level of parents using the system, it is arguable that new discourses about the best interests of the child serve as a proxy for continuing discourses about parents’ rights that have become evident, most recently, in the context of an increasingly influential fathers’ rights lobby; and at the level of welfare practitioners, recent research also demonstrates that, although the rhetoric of children's rights is widely accepted, the willingness and ability to make these real in the context of family proceedings is, for a variety of reasons, less in evidence.

The Statelessness of the World's Children

At the heart of the discourse and practice of children’s rights lie basic assumptions about the relationship between the young and the nation-state. On one hand, the lives of children are considered as if they are nested within the boundaries of a single nation. On the other hand, the state — as signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) — is positioned as the primary guarantor of the rights and well-being of young people. A naturalised understanding about the relationship of young people to nation-states is evidenced in the annual UNICEF report, The State of the World’s Children, which accounts for the situation of children globally by reference to indicators of health, education and so on, organised by country (UNICEF, 2006). At the same time, this report can also be read as a commentary on the state of the world’s nation-states, in which the well-being of children serves as an indicator of national progress. This illustrates the two-way relationship in which children are critical — at least in symbolic terms — to states, just as those same states are seen to play a central role in the lives of the young.

Children's Participation and the Promotion of their Rights1

This article questions whether children and young people can be said to have participated in processes relating to the introduction of recent government policy with respect to children and young people and the significance that has been attached to their views. Whilst recognising the undoubted importance of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) as an instrument setting out the aspirational standards to be applied when working with children and young people, and its value as an audit tool, the limitations of the Convention should be openly acknowledged. The argument is made, using lessons drawn from decided cases, that greater attention should be focused on the legal rights that children have under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) rather than on the more ephemeral rights conferred by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, in order to achieve more meaningful participation by children and young people in the shaping of laws and policies affecting them.

“Don't Come Too Close To My Octopus Tree”: Recording and Evaluating Young Children's Perspectives on Outdoor Learning

Children, Youth and Environments 16(2), 2006 “Don’t Come Too Close To My Octopus Tree”: Recording and Evaluating Young Children’s Perspectives on Outdoor Learning Tim Waller Department of Childhood Studies Swansea University Citation: Waller, Tim (2006). “’Don’t Come Too Close to My Octopus Tree’: Recording and Evaluating Young Children’s Perspectives of Outdoor Learning.” Children, Youth and Environments 16(2): 75-104. Comment on This Article Abstract This paper examines how children’s experiences of an outdoor project can challenge our understanding of participation. It discusses and evaluates participative approaches and the inter-relationship between children’s spaces, pedagogy and research. It draws on an ongoing multi-method study in the United Kingdom of how young children can develop their own learning paths. A critical discussion of participatory research with, rather than on, children, acknowledges children’s agency and develops the concept of “children’s spaces” in participatory research and early years’ pedagogy. The paper also discusses the implications for adult roles and methodological design and suggests a model for research as an interpretive process of co-constructed knowledge starting from children’s perspectives. Keywords:children’s perspectives, participatory research with young children, United Kingdom, outdoor environment, learning environments, participatory methods© 2006 Children, Youth and Environments “Don’t Come Too Close To My Octopus Tree”: Recording and Evaluating ... 76 Introduction This paper discusses participatory methods with young children aged three and four years. The paper explores what can be learned from researching children’s outdoor experiences to challenge thinking and practice with regards to children’s participation. The research is an ongoing collaboration between a nursery school and a university. Over a period of seven months during the school year, the children are taken regularly to a local country park. This gives them an opportunity to interact regularly with natural surroundings and to develop their own independent learning paths and dispositions. In the country park the children are given time and space to follow their own priorities, thus allowing practitioners and researchers opportunities to develop their knowledge of individual children through listening, interaction and observation. The main purpose of the research is to elicit the children’s perspectives of their outdoor experiences and to investigate the children’s dispositions within the outdoor environment. The aim of the paper is to engage in a critical discussion of participatory approaches highlighting the contested and problematic nature of research with children, with particular reference to children’s agency. The paper provides an overview of research with young children, focusing on methods and issues of participation. As this research was getting under way, it became clear that a conceptual shift was taking place, involving both research and practice, towards participation with children and recognition that children are “experts in their own lives” (Clark and Statham 2005). An analysis of this conceptual shift is offered, drawing on insights from recent literature in the field. The paper then moves on to analyze a possible model for participatory research that focuses on young children’s perspectives and explores the concept of children’s spaces advocated by Moss and Petrie (2002) in relation to both participatory research and early years pedagogy. Children’s Perspectives The increasing international interest in participatory methods of research and in developing appropriate methods for “listening to children” has been well documented, both in this journal (e.g., Burke 2005 and Fjørtoft 2004) and elsewhere (e.g., O’Kane 2000 and Kirby et al. 2003). Hill (2005) points out that the public prominence given to children’s rights has challenged conventional thinking about children’s competence to participate and has led, over the last few years, to a significant trend in policy, research and literature concerning children’s perspectives. Due to the influence of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and in the UK, the Children Acts of 1989 and 2004, both policymakers and service providers have recognized the importance of listening to children (Lancaster 2003; Lloyd-Smith and Tarr 2000). Additionally, Kirby et al. (2003) argue that the participation of children and young people in evaluation and research has generally increased in its scope and quality. As a result, in the UK, for example...

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child: Implementation in the 21st Century

The ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) demands that those participating nations, adopt the aims of the convention as state responsibilities toward their child citizens. The central premise of the convention is clear: that it is the right of all children to develop to their full potential. The authors propose six basic interdependent developmental requirements if the child is to reach ‘full potential’. Without prioritising any one need, but instead concentrating on the facilitation of complete care of the child, the paper aims to examine how the UNCRC may finally be realised. This is achieved by highlighting several key situations and associated factors, which contribute to deficient care. Whilst the factors leading to the creation of such situations are often culturally specific, the consequences for the child, and the implications for care providers (parents, aid agencies, and policy makers), are often very similar within and between continents.

Building a Child Impact Assessment Tool for the City of Edmonton

Children, Youth and Environments 15(2), 2005 Building a Child Impact Assessment Tool for the City of Edmonton Bob Yates Yates, Thorn & Associates Victoria, British Columbia, Canada Citation: Yates, Bob. (2005). “Building a Child Impact Assessment Tool for the City of Edmonton.” Children, Youth and Environments 15(2): 371-377. . Comment on This Article Abstract Few Canadian cities have taken their commitments to children and young people more seriously than the City of Edmonton. The City has recognized that the local government agency in Edmonton must take the lead in promoting the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The firm of Yates, Thorn & Associates, a Victoria, British Columbia-based social planning consultancy, was hired by the City of Edmonton to help develop specific aspects of its Children’s Services Framework. This report describes the development of a Child Impact Assessment Tool. Keywords: Child-friendly cities, child impact assessment tool, Canada© 2005 Children, Youth and Environments Building a Child Impact Assessment Tool for the City of Edmonton 372 Background The demands on local governments in Canada and elsewhere to provide effective services for children and youth are increasing along many dimensions: • The expectations of parents and others regarding the range and quality of services are expanding. • More children are living in poverty now than at any time in the past. Their need for services is even greater than that of those children who have the ability to pay. • Federal and provincial governments are downloading services onto local governments, and providing funding for new services such as childcare. At the same time, they frequently adopt legal (such as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)) or promotional (such as Alberta’s Promise) frameworks which local governments are required to follow. • Multiple agencies are increasingly involved as partners in the delivery of services. This is positive, but also demanding of time and resources. • The value of all services is constantly being evaluated and in some cases questioned by a tax-conscious public. • Communities are focusing more on outputs than inputs. The question is no longer “how many hockey practices did you attend?” but rather “did you win the game?” or at the very least “how well did you play?” When all this is put together with the inherent vulnerability and lack of political power of children and youth, it requires local governments to include frameworks and processes in their policy making that consistently and continually prompt the question, “What will be the impact on children and youth?” The City of Edmonton recognized that this question must be addressed as part of the implementation of its Children's Services Framework. Consequently, the City of Edmonton Community Services Department requested Yates, Thorn & Associates1 to develop a Child Impact Assessment Tool: a “lens” through which the impact of programs, policies and initiatives on children and youth could be examined. Early discussion made it clear that the Child Impact Assessment process must be: • Practical - it must be simple to use, providing a set of functional tools for city administrators and elected officials. • Visible - it must act to reinforce the need for a broad range of services for children and youth. • Visionary - it must be far-sighted in its vision of services for children, with the goal of putting Edmonton at the leading edge of child-friendly cities. Building a Child Impact Assessment Tool for the City of Edmonton 373 To meet these objectives, it must be designed to: • Educate various groups about children’s services. These groups include internal department and city staff, councilors, external agency staff and volunteers, as well as the general public. • Advocate for a child-friendly Edmonton. This implies a more proactive approach focused not just on “means” but also on “ends.” • Integrate child-focused efforts into the business planning processes of the City. The Child Impact Assessment will only be effective in the long term if it is a part of the machinery of government. • Focus on the key issues of importance to the children and youth of Edmonton, which had been identified through consultation with children and adults during the development of the Children’s Services Framework. Moving Edmonton towards Being a “Child...

Listening and responding? Children's participation in health care within England

This article examines recent health policy developments in England in relation to children's rights under Article 12 and 13 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). It draws on practice and research literature to explore evidence regarding: children's participation both within decisions about their own care and concerning the development of health services, their access to mechanisms that allow them a voice, the provision of and need for accessible information, and factors which prevent or facilitate children's participation. The paper does not explore in detail issues concerning children's consent or competence to participate.

Children's rights to be heard in child protection processes?law, policy and practice in England and Wales

This article will examine how child protection procedures and practices can promote the rights of children to have their voices heard effectively within the child protection system in England and Wales. New domestic legal requirements concerning the extent and nature of the participation of young people in child protection decision-making processes are presented and analysed. The status of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and the effects of the Human Rights Act 1998 for all agencies involved in child protection work are discussed. Suggestions for regulation and monitoring of policies and practices that can empower children to participate more fully in child protection processes that comply with the UNCRC and the Human Rights Act are presented. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.