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ABSTRACT
This introduction provides the rationale for the special issue of the International Journal of Human Rights on the topic of the children’s right to participation and protection in international development and humanitarian efforts. It summarises selected contributions relating to an international conference entitled ‘Facilitating Child Participation in International Child Protection’ that took place 5–6 October 2015 at Ryerson University in Toronto (Canada). The concepts of child participation and child protection are explored. Then, the challenges and opportunities are highlighted regarding the actual and potential participatory role of children and young people in effective child protection. Finally, an overview of the articles included in this collection is provided.
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to all the referees for this special issue for their insightful comments and time and to Christina Brinco for assistance with project coordination. We are also grateful to the journal’s editors for their support through the preparation of this special issue. We also thank the Child Participation Working Group of the International Child Protection Network of Canada for supporting the organisation of the ‘Facilitating Child Participation in International Child Protection’ conference.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Mónica Ruiz-Casares is Assistant Professor in the Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry, McGill University, Canada. She has led many studies and written numerous publications on child protection and well-being in the minority and majority worlds, particularly related to children without parental care. Her research privileges the voices of children and youth, and is inspired by action research principles.
Tara M. Collins is Assistant Professor in the School of Child & Youth Care at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada. Her professional experience includes work for: universities in Canada and Ireland; Canadian federal government and parliament; and a national non-governmental organisation. Research interests include child and youth participation, child protection, anti-violence efforts, monitoring and rights-based approaches.
E. Kay M. Tisdall is Professor of Childhood Policy and Co-Director of the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships, University of Edinburgh. Within her subject group of social policy, she is Programme Director of the MSc in Childhood Studies. She has a long-standing interest in children and young people’s participation, from her policy and research work.
Sonja Grover is Professor in the Faculty of Education, Lakehead University. She also has facilitated case based teaching modules as Professor in the Clinical Sciences Division of the Northern School of Medicine affiliated with Lakehead University. She has published extensively in the area of international law including on the topic of children’s human rights.
ORCID
E. Kay M. Tisdall http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8967-6426
Notes
1 Tara M. Collins and C. Gervais, ‘Children’s Rights: Their Role, Significance and Potential’, in Current Issues and Controversies in Human Rights, ed. Gordon DiGiacomo (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2016), 172.
2 The phrase ‘children and young people’ is generally used in this introduction, following young people’s typical preference to be referred to as the latter. Broadly, ‘children and young people’ refers to children up to the age of 18, as defined within the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. This introduction refers to ‘children’s rights’ when referring to the human rights framework as applied to children and young people as this is the phrase most commonly used in the literature.
3 Jaap E. Doek, ‘The CRC 20 Years: An Overview of Some of the Major Achievements and Remaining Challenges’, Child Abuse & Neglect 33, no. 11 (2009): 771–82, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0145213409002038.
4 Brigid Daniel, ‘Concepts of Adversity, Risk, Vulnerability and Resilience: A Discussion in the Context of the “Child Protection System”’, Social Policy and Society 9, no. 2 (2010): 231–41, http://www.cambridge.org/core/article/concepts-of-adversity-risk-vulnerability-and-resilience-a-discussion-in-the-context-of-the-child-protection-system/7646CB2D7000006789BE3761DD47ECBE (accessed 1 April 2010); Peter Lachman et al., ‘Challenges Facing Child Protection’, Child Abuse & Neglect 26, nos 6–7 (2002): 587–617, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0145213402003368.
5 United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), Convention on the Rights of the Child, 44/25 (New York: UNGA, 1989).
6 To date, only one country in the world has not ratified the CRC – the United States of America (signed 16 February 1995).
7 For example, see Art. 6 (maximum survival and development) and Art. 19 (protective measures required against ‘physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment’). See further Collins’ article in this special issue.
8 UNICEF, ‘Machel Study 10-Year Strategic Review: Children and Conflict in a Changing World’ (New York: Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict in collaboration with UNICEF, 2009).
9 Naker Dipak, Mann Gillian, and Rajani Rakesh, ‘The Gap between Rhetoric and Practice: Critical Perspectives on Children’s Participation – Editors’ Introduction’, Children, Youth and Environments 17, no. 3 (2007): 99–103, http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7721/chilyoutenvi.17.3.0099.
10 In order to draw conclusions that were as applicable as possible to a wide range of activities, organisations, geographic areas and populations of children, the conference adopted a broad working definition of international child protection as encompassing all efforts aimed at ensuring that children’s rights are protected, while improving the quality of life and well-being of young people around the world. Some of the contributions to this special issue reflect that understanding.
11 Further details are available in the conference summary documentation: Ilana Lockwood, ‘Conference Executive Summary’ (https://icpnc.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/fcpicp-conference-executive-summary.pdf) and ‘Conference Summary’ (https://icpnc.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/fcpicp-conference-summary-final.pdf).
12 UNGA, Convention on the Rights of the Child, 44/25.
13 UN Committee, General Comment No. 12: The Right of the Child to Be Heard, UN Doc. Crc/C/Gc/12 (UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, 2009).
14 Participation is also mentioned for children within the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006).
15 For example, Roger Hart, Children’s Participation: From Tokenism to Citizenship, Innocenti Series, No. 4 (Florence, Italy: UNICEF International Child Development Centre, 1992); Phil Treseder, Empowering Children and Young People: Promoting Involvement in Decision Making (London: Save the Children, 1997); Harry Shier, ‘Pathways to Participation: Openings, Opportunities and Obligations’, Children & Society 15, no. 2 (2001): 107–17, http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/chi.617; Naima T. Wong, Marc A. Zimmerman, and Edith A. Parker, ‘A Typology of Youth Participation and Empowerment for Child and Adolescent Health Promotion’, American Journal of Community Psychology 46, nos 1–2 (2010): 100–14, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10464-010-9330-0.
16 Wong et al., ‘A Typology of Youth Participation and Empowerment’.
17 UN Committee, General Comment No. 5. General Measures of Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (Arts 4, 42 and 44, Para. 6), UN Doc. Crc/Gc/2003/5, (2003).
18 CPWG, Child Protection in Emergencies (CPIE) Competency Framework (Inter-agency Initiative of the Child Protection Working Group, 2010).
19 Anne Stafford et al., ‘“Having a Say”: Children and Young People Talk About Consultation’, Children & Society 17, no. 5 (2003): 361, http://proxy.library.mcgill.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=11427987; Eva K. Mårtenson and Astrid M. Fägerskiöld, ‘A Review of Children’s Decision-Making Competence in Health Care’, Journal of Clinical Nursing 17, no. 23 (2008): 3131–41, http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2702.2006.01920.x.; Ganna G. van Bijleveld, Christine W.M. Dedding, and Joske F.G. Bunders-Aelen, ‘Children’s and Young People’s Participation within Child Welfare and Child Protection Services: A State-of-the-Art Review’, Child & Family Social Work 20, no. 2 (2015): 129–38, http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/cfs.12082.
20 UNICEF Spain, Children’s Well-Being from Their Own Point of View. What Affects the Children’s Well-Being in the First Year of Compulsory Secondary Education in Spain? (Madrid: UNICEF Spain, 2012); Svein Arild Vis et al., ‘Participation and Health – A Research Review of Child Participation in Planning and Decision-Making’, Child & Family Social Work 16, no. 3 (2011): 325–35, http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2206.2010.00743.x; Mònica González et al., ‘Adolescents’ Perspective on Their Participation in the Family Context and Its Relationship with Their Subjective Well-Being’, Child Indicators Research 8, no. 1 (2014): 93–109, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12187-014-9281-3; Katrina Lloyd and Lesley Emerson, ‘(Re)Examining the Relationship between Children’s Subjective Wellbeing and Their Perceptions of Participation Rights’, Child Indicators Research (2016): 1–18, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12187-016-9396-9.
21 Arild Vis et al., ‘Participation and Health’.
22 Ibid.
23 Imelda Coyne and Pamela Gallagher, ‘Participation in Communication and Decision-Making: Children and Young People’s Experiences in a Hospital Setting’, Journal of Clinical Nursing 20, nos 15–16 (2011): 2334–43, http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2702.2010.03582.x; Imelda Coyne et al., ‘Interventions for Promoting Participation in Shared Decision-Making for Children with Cancer’, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, no. 6 (2013): Art. No.: CD008970. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD008970.pub2.
24 Susan Moses, ‘Children and Participation in South Africa: An Overview’, International Journal of Children’s Rights 16 (2008): 327–42, http://www.unicef.org/adolescence/cypguide/files/Children_and_participation_in_South_Africa__Susan_Moses__2008.pdf.
25 Jill Brown, ‘Morals and Maladies: Life Histories of Socially Distributed Care among Aaumbo Women in Namibia, Southern Africa’, Journal of Critical Southern Studies 1, no. 1 (2013): 60–79; Andries Viviers and Antoinette Lombard, ‘The Ethics of Children’s Participation: Fundamental to Children’s Rights Realization in Africa’, International Social Work 56, no. 1 (2013): 7–21, http://isw.sagepub.com/content/56/1/7.abstract (accessed 1 January 2013).
26 Xiaoyang Chen and Ruiping Fan, ‘The Family and Harmonious Medical Decision Making: Cherishing an Appropriate Confucian Moral Balance’, Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 35, no. 5 (2010): 573–86, http://jmp.oxfordjournals.org/content/35/5/573.abstract (accessed 1 October 2010).
27 Tara M. Collins, ‘International Child Rights in National Constitutions: Good Sense or Nonsense for Ireland?’, Irish Political Studies 28, no. 4 (2013): 591–619, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07907184.2013.838951 (accessed 1 December 2013); A. Lopatka, ‘Importance of the Convention on the Rights of the Child’, in The Rights of the Child, Bulletin of Human Rights 91/2 (New York: UN Centre for Human Rights, 1992).
28 Deng Rui, ‘A Family-Oriented Decision-Making Model for Human Research in Mainland China’, Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 40, no. 4 (2015): 400–17.
29 Adam Davies and Duncan Randall, ‘Perceptions of Children’s Participation in Their Healthcare: A Critical Review’, Issues in Comprehensive Pediatric Nursing 38, no. 3 (2015): 202–21, http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/01460862.2015.1063740 (accessed 3 July 2015).
30 van Bijleveld et al., ‘Children’s and Young People’s Participation’; Michael Gallagher et al., ‘Children and Families’ Involvement in Social Work Decision Making’, Children & Society 26, no. 1 (2012): 74–85, http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1099-0860.2011.00409.x; RIATT, ‘Child and Youth Participation in East and Southern Africa: Taking Stock and Moving Forward. An Analytical Review of the Literature and Five Case Studies on Child and Youth Participation in East and Southern Africa’ (Regional Interagency Task Team on Children and AIDS (RIATT) – Eastern and Southern Africa, 2010).
31 Priscilla Alderson, ‘Competent Children? Minors’ Consent to Health Care Treatment and Research’, Social Science & Medicine 65, no. 11 (2007): 2272–83, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027795360700439X; Tracey Skelton, ‘Research with Children and Young People: Exploring the Tensions between Ethics, Competence and Participation’, Children’s Geographies 6, no. 1 (2008): 21–36.
32 Mårtenson and Fägerskiöld, ‘A Review of Children’s Decision-Making Competence in Health Care’; van Bijleveld et al., ‘Children’s and Young People’s Participation’; Svein Arild Vis, Amy Holtan, and Nigel Thomas, ‘Obstacles for Child Participation in Care and Protection Cases – Why Norwegian Social Workers Find it Difficult’, Child Abuse Review 21, no. 1 (2012): 7–23, http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/car.1155; Imelda Coyne, ‘Children’s Participation in Consultations and Decision-Making at Health Service Level: A Review of the Literature’, International Journal of Nursing Studies 45, no. 11 (2008): 1682–9, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0020748908001466.
33 M. Ruiz-Casares, ‘Effective Child and Adolescent Participation for Global Mental Health & Protection’ (Paper presented at the McGill Advanced Study Institute in Cultural Psychiatry, Montreal, 30 May–1 June 2016).
34 See Jamieson article in this special issue.
35 France Légaré et al., ‘Training Health Professionals in Shared Decision-Making: An International Environmental Scan’, Patient Education and Counseling 88, no. 2 (2012): 159–69, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S073839911200033X.
36 Sonja Grover, ‘Potential Obstacles under the Op3-Crc to Redress for Violation of Indigenous Children’s Social and Cultural Rights’, in Children Defending Their Human Rights under the CRC Communication Procedure: On Strengthening the Convention on the Rights of the Child Complaint Mechanism, ed. Sonja Grover (Berlin: Springer, 2015).
37 Kristina Anne Bentley, ‘Can There Be Any Universal Children’s Rights?’, The International Journal of Human Rights 9, no. 1 (2005): 107–23, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13642980500032370 (accessed 1 March 2005).
38 Sonja Grover, ‘A Response to K.A. Bentley’s “Can There Be Any Universal Children’s Rights?”’, The International Journal of Human Rights 11, no. 4 (2007): 429–43, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13642980701659955 (accessed 1 December 2007).
39 C. O’Kane, ‘Children in Conflict Situations’, in The SAGE Handbook of Early Childhood Research, ed. A. Farrell, S. L. Kagan, and E. K. M. Tisdall (London: Sage, 2015).
40 Claire Feinstein and Claire O’Kane, Global Report: Adults’ War and Young Generation’s Peace (Oslo: Save the Children Norway, 2008); K. Kostelny and M. Wessells, ‘The Protection and Psychosocial Well-Being of Young Children Following Armed Conflict’, Journal of Developmental Processes 3, no. 2 (2008): 13–25.