This special issue of the International Journal of Human Rights addresses a wide range of topics in the area of children's and women's fundamental human rights. However, the one central underlying theme unifying the articles could be characterised as that of children's right to genuine social inclusion and to meaningful familial and societal participation. The latter presupposes a safe and supportive environment for the child in the community and in the family and a family that has not been marginalised due to discrimination on any ground. Thus the articles in this special issue relate especially strongly, though not exclusively, to the following articles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC): Articles 2 (the principle of non-discrimination), 12 (children's participation rights) and 19 (the rights of the child to be protected from all forms of physical or mental violence or any form of maltreatment while in the custody or under the control of any person in any context).Footnote1 Another key theme is that children's human rights are, in many ways, critically impacted by the degree to which women's human rights and the rights of the family are respected and these issues also are highlighted in various of the papers here included.
Note that with the entry into force on 14 April 2014 of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a Communications ProcedureFootnote2 children will for the first time have the opportunity to file with the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child communications/complaints against state parties (either directly or through their representatives) regarding violations of the CRCFootnote3 and/or of its first two optional protocols. Rights violations falling into the domains discussed in this special issue may very well be among those complaints frequently brought against various state parties by means of the new CRC optional communications/complaints protocol given the commonplace nature of these violations. The highlighting of such violations in a special issue such as this and education regarding state obligations to respect and implement children's rights to inclusion and participation are part of the effort directed towards realisation of these basic human rights of children. It should not be the case that children must resort to a complaints mechanism to attempt to vindicate their inherent status as full members of society with rights of participation consistent with respect for their human dignity.
The valuable and insightful articles included in this special issue of the International Journal of Human Rights were authored by a diverse set of international experts in the field of children's rights and include the following (listed by alphabetical order of the author's last name):
‘The relationship between children's rights and business’ by Tara Collins explores the broad scope of the relationship between business and children's human rights. Children are too often considered as irrelevant to business except as a vulnerable consumer group; however, Collins describes how consideration of children's human rights should properly shape business structures, processes, practice and ethics and the useful contributions that business can make to the implementation of children's rights as recognised under international human rights law. She also examines the specific contributions to our understanding of the relationship between business and children's rights of the ‘Children's Rights and Business Principles’ (released in 2012 by the coalition group comprised of UNICEF,Save the Children, and The Global Compact), General Comment 16 on state obligations regarding the impact of the business sector on children's rights (issued in 2013 by the United Nations (UN) Committee on the Rights of the Child) and the 2011 UN ‘Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights’. Collins advances a conceptual model which facilitates consideration of child rights in business relationships, structures, processes and outcomes.
‘The plight of Romanian social protection: addressing the vulnerabilities and well-being in Romanian Roma families’ by Maria Roth and Stefánia Toma addresses the human rights situation of Romanian Roma families and children and their social exclusion in that country. To what degree Romania has complied with the European Union framework for integration of the Roma is critically examined with reference to various issues, such as the quality of schooling provided to Roma children and child poverty amongst Roma children in the state. Barriers to adequate monitoring and implementation of Romanian social inclusion strategies for the Roma are considered. The need for improvement in the ethical treatment of the Roma by professional social workers and improved social services is a major theme in the article. Roth and Toma report some surprising survey results regarding the attitudes of large numbers of social workers in Romania whose views are hindering social workers from being fully effective advocates for improvements in the human rights conditions of Roma families and children in Romania.
‘Genuine social inclusion or superficial co-existence?’ by Milfrid Tonheim discusses an empirical qualitative study involving former girl soldiers in the eastern Congo and their struggles to re-integrate into their communities and families on their return home. The article examines various dimensions of these ex child soldiers' re-integration and explains that the social dimension of the integration process must be given higher priority in that to-date ‘the social reintegration process of former child soldiers has suffered due to an unbalanced focus on and prioritisation of first the psychological and then the economic dimensions of reintegration’. Tonheim's article reveals that the benefits of genuine social integration of former girl soldiers are ‘at least as many and as important, if not more so, than spinoffs commonly associated with successful economic reintegration’.
‘Women and children versus domestic violence: legal reflections, needs and challenges in Spain today’ by Pilar Villanueva examines the manner in which international law, regional European law and Spanish domestic legislation address gender-based domestic violence involving women and child victims (minor children are themselves targeted for violence or are targeted with their mothers or act as witnesses to the violence against their mothers or other family members). The article highlights recent developments in law and legal practice (including for instance the Istanbul Convention)Footnote4 with regard to consideration of gender-based domestic violence, specifically that which targets women and girls. The article discusses new inclusive perspectives that provide that child witnesses to family violence and other vulnerable family members who may be targeted are to be given special consideration in law as direct victims of that violence. Also discussed is the European Court of Human Rights' innovative legal perspective that the right to non-interference with private family life includes the right to be protected from violence within the family unit perpetrated by a family member and hence also implies a state obligation to prevent such violence by private individuals. The child's right to reparations as a victim of gender-based violence, including as a child witness of such violence against the mother, is also addressed. Villanueva contextualises the epidemic problem of violence against women and girls as both a global public health crisis and an international fundamental human rights concern.
‘Democratising democracy: the road from women's to children's suffrage’ by John Wall examines the debate regarding whether suffrage should be extended to ‘some or all of the third of humanity who are under eighteen’. Wall compares the current debates surrounding child suffrage to similar historical debates relating to the women's suffrage movement in selected countries and discusses the limitations of contextualising the issue of the children's vote solely in this way. He explores the recent global rise in agitation by children for the vote. Voting is an essential element of meaningful societal participation and Wall notes that we require new post-modern conceptions in tackling the issue of children's suffrage. He argues that a more meaningful approach would be to consider that the children's vote is ‘grounded in the necessity for political representation to respond to children's uniqueness rather than their competence or power’.
This special issue then is a call to action with specific recommendations directed to the international community and to various states to effectively address the issue of gender-based domestic violence; the ongoing social exclusion of children (grounded in discrimination related to age, ethnicity, gender, social status and family circumstance), and the barriers to effective societal participation still facing a wide range of child populations.
Notes on contributor
Sonja Grover (Guest Editor of the special issue of the International Journal of Human Rights on children's and women's rights) received her PhD in applied psychology from OISE/University of Toronto, Canada in 1976 and holds the position of Professor in the Faculty of Education, Lakehead University, Ontario, Canada. She is an Associate Editor of the International Journal of Human Rights. Dr Grover has published 12 books eight of which pertain to children's human rights and 86 refereed journal articles mostly in the field of children's rights and law. Her most recent book published on children's rights is The Torture of Children During Armed Conflicts: The ICC Failure to Prosecute and the Negation of Children's Human Dignity (Berlin: Springer Publishers, 2014). Dr Grover has a forthcoming book with Springer titled Children Defending their Human Rights Under the CRC Communications Procedure: On Strengthening the Convention on the Rights of the Child Complaints Mechanism to be released in late winter 2014 or early 2015.
Notes
1. Convention on the Rights of the Child, entered into force 2 September 1990. http://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx (accessed 23 June 2014).
2. Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a Communications Procedure, Child Rights International Network. https://www.crin.org/en/library/legal-database/optional-protocol-un-convention-rights-child-communications-procedure (accessed 23 June 2014).
3. Convention on the Rights of the Child.
4. Council of Europe Convention on Prevention and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention), entered into force 1 August 2014. http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/standardsetting/convention-violence/convention/Convention%20210%20English.pdf (accessed 24 June 2014).