I have become very
interested in what rights children have. Here is the link to the United Nations
Conventions on the Rights of the Child: http://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx
The CRC says that:
- Childhood is
entitled to special care and assistance
- Convinced that
the family, as the fundamental group of society and the natural
environment for the growth and well-being of all its members and
particularly children, should be afforded the necessary protection and
assistance so that it can fully assume its responsibilities within the
community - the family, the natural environment for the
growth and well-being of children, should be afforded the protection and
assistance to assume its responsibilities (emphasis mine)
- Recognizing that
the child, for the full and harmonious development of his or her
personality, should grow up in a family environment, in an atmosphere of
happiness, love and understanding
- Considering that
the child should be fully prepared to live an individual life in society,
and brought up in the spirit of the ideals proclaimed in the Charter of
the United Nations, and in particular in the spirit of peace, dignity,
tolerance, freedom, equality and solidarity
- the child, by
reason of his physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and
care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after
birth
1. States
Parties shall respect and ensure the rights set forth in the present Convention
to each child within their jurisdiction without discrimination of any kind,
irrespective of the child's or his or her parent's or legal guardian's race,
colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic
or social origin, property, disability, birth or other status. - the
child's right should be ensured despite the parent's religion (emphasis and
paraphrase mine)
Article 3
1. In all
actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or private social
welfare institutions, courts of law, administrative authorities or legislative
bodies, the best interests of the child shall be a primary
consideration.
Article 5
States
Parties shall respect the responsibilities, rights and duties of parents or,
where applicable, the members of the extended family or community as provided
for by local custom, legal guardians or other persons legally responsible for
the child, to provide, in a manner consistent with the evolving capacities of
the child, appropriate direction and guidance in the exercise by the child of
the rights recognized in the present Convention.
Article 9
1. States
Parties shall ensure that a child shall not be separated from his or her
parents against their will, except when competent authorities subject to
judicial review determine, in accordance with applicable law and procedures,
that such separation is necessary for the best interests of the child. Such
determination may be necessary in a particular case such as one involving abuse
or neglect of the child by the parents, or one where the parents are living
separately and a decision must be made as to the child's place of residence. - children
can be removed from their parents against their will if it is determined to be
in the best interest of the child (emphasis and paraphrase mine)
Article
12
1. States
Parties shall assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her own
views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the
child, the views of the child being given due weight in accordance with the age
and maturity of the child.
Article
13
1. The
child shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include
freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds,
regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of
art, or through any other media of the child's choice.
Article
14
1. States
Parties shall respect the right of the child to freedom of thought, conscience
and religion.
2. States
Parties shall respect the rights and duties of the parents and, when
applicable, legal guardians, to provide direction to the child in the exercise
of his or her right in a manner consistent with the evolving capacities of the
child.
Article
18
1. States
Parties shall use their best efforts to ensure recognition of the principle
that both parents have common responsibilities for the upbringing and
development of the child. Parents or, as the case may be, legal guardians, have
the primary responsibility for the upbringing and development of the child. The
best interests of the child will be their basic concern. - the best
interest of the child will be primary concern of those with the responsibility
for the upbringing of the child - this appears to be a hope and belief, not a
guarantee (emphasis and paraphrase mine)
Article
19
1. States
Parties shall take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and
educational measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental
violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or
exploitation, including sexual abuse, while in the care of parent(s), legal
guardian(s) or any other person who has the care of the child.
Article
20
1. A
child temporarily or permanently deprived of his or her family environment, or
in whose own best interests cannot be allowed to remain in that environment,
shall be entitled to special protection and assistance provided by the State.
Article
27
1. States
Parties recognize the right of every child to a standard of living adequate for
the child's physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development.
2. The
parent(s) or others responsible for the child have the primary responsibility
to secure, within their abilities and financial capacities, the conditions of
living necessary for the child's development.
Article
28
1. States
Parties recognize the right of the child to education, and with a view to
achieving this right progressively and on the basis of equal opportunity, they
shall, in particular:
(a) Make
primary education compulsory and available free to all;
Article
31
1. States
Parties recognize the right of the child to rest and leisure, to engage in play
and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child and to
participate freely in cultural life and the arts.
2. States
Parties shall respect and promote the right of the child to participate fully
in cultural and artistic life and shall encourage the provision of appropriate
and equal opportunities for cultural, artistic, recreational and leisure
activity.
Article
32
1. States
Parties recognize the right of the child to be protected from economic
exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to
interfere with the child's education, or to be harmful to the child's health or
physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development.
Article
39
States
Parties shall take all appropriate measures to promote physical and
psychological recovery and social reintegration of a child victim of: any form
of neglect, exploitation, or abuse; torture or any other form of cruel, inhuman
or degrading treatment or punishment; or armed conflicts. Such recovery and
reintegration shall take place in an environment which fosters the health,
self-respect and dignity of the child.
* * * * *
* * * * * *
I have
used the United Nations convention because this issue is prevalent in both the
US and Canada, and the convention supposedly guides both these nations. As
shown in the summary of the convention, there are certain rights a member
nation is required to provide to children, but in most cases, there is an
assumption that parents would only ever be interested in the best interests of
their own children, and therefore can be entrusted even if their actions
appears to circumvent the child's rights. This is not a promise to children
that they will be provided for, it is a hope for the best that their parents
will do the right thing.
Is it in
the best interest of children to simply hope that parents will have their own
children's best interests at heart. When I was university for Social Work, we
were told to assume that all parents love their children, and therefore have
the best interest of children at heart. Abuse and neglect were largely attributed
to life circumstances that are preventing them from realizing the best
interests of the child. I think that in the vast majority of child abuse and
neglect cases, this is the case. And in cases where there is a mental illness,
alcoholism, and neglect, the government usually makes provision for the parent
to fix their problems and resume parenting with the child best interests.
There are
parents out there that subscribe to radical conservative Biblical ideology.
This ideology spells out the rights of the parents, and the responsibility of
the children to submit to the parents (and gender based discrimination, but
that is another topic). The Bible contains many verses that describe the
complete obedience of children. I will generally reference a great deal of the
book of Proverbs here, but in particular chapter 6, verse 20: "my son obey
your father's commands, and do not neglect your mother's teachings". There
are far fewer verses detailing the responsibilities of parents towards their
children, for example: "Which
of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone?" Matthew7:9. If
a family subscribes to an ideology in which the primary concern of the father
is to uphold his own wishes, even at the expense of the children's needs, how
can they be trusted to uphold the best interests of the child in the spirit of
this convention?
Because abuse
in such a household is hard to detect, this convention does not adequately deal
with the conflicting provisions of family control and best interests of the
child. These concepts or provisions are at odds in such families. Children are
also not prepared to live in society when raised in this type of environment.
Because children are usually kept in the home environment by making them afraid
of the outside world, they are unnecessarily terrorized about the world.
Homeschooling
is often upheld as part of the rights of parents to provide for their own children.
The convention says that an education is a right for children and is compulsory.
Many homeschooling parents do an adequate job in providing an elementary
education for their children. However, without adequate supervision, it is
impossible to tell how many such children are adequately educated and how many
are not, and there is not sufficient evidence at this time to know the
psychological effects of homeschooling on children.
Without
adequate enforcement, the caveats made in this convention that are intended to
protect the family unit in fact protect the parents, and simply hope for the
best that the parents will protect their own children. No one protects the
children unless a sufficient case can be made for the government to step in and
separate the parents from their children. Therefore it does not appear that
children’s rights are safe guarded unless their condition is so dire as so
demand dramatic intervention.
No comments:
Post a Comment