Child Rights
The issue of child rights has been a debate for several years. The debate always bases its argument on the extent to which children should be allowed to enjoy their rights without turning out to become extremists. The balance between the rights of children and the parental responsibilities is always an issue of concern and several agencies have taken the initiative to define the extents of child rights. The United Nations, for example, has been in the front line in advocating for human rights, and child rights have not been ignored. The UNDHR contains several articles recognizing the human rights that are specific to children. Children are human beings and are therefore entitled to several human rights enjoyed by adults although their rights are subject to several restrictions. The fact that children are not in a position to make reformed decisions as well as standing up for their rights, special agencies are tasked with protecting their rights.
Child Rights in UNDHR
The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights has been at the forefront in advocating for human rights. The world has been continually changing in terms of respecting human rights. Initially, the world was structured in terms of class and racial supremacy (Doyle & Kenny, 2017). Racial supremacy has been blamed for the extensive lack of humanity where superior races have been blamed for subjecting the inferior races to suffering for their advantage. A case in hand is the most recent colonialism of the European powers on Africa which was a strategy to exploit the idle wealth on the continent. The move by the European nations was not taken in good faith by the rest of the world who thought that the European powers were led by greed and lust into taking Africans’ rights for granted and exposing to slavery under the excuse that Europe was interested in spreading civilization to Africa. However, the formation of the United Nations after the world wars changed the perception of the world towards human rights and respect for humanity. Children are always at the receiving end of the negative impacts of human rights are not respected. Several articles in the UNDHR list of human rights recognize the rights that should be enjoyed by children.
Article 25 of the UNHDR specifies the rights that children and mothers should enjoy in terms of housing and security. The structure of the world has been developed in such a way that mothers are always the closest to children and end up enjoying similar rights. Although several articles specify the rights that should be enjoyed by everyone, specific clauses in the articles narrow down to rights specific. Generally, article 25 is based on the right to having an adequate standard of living for everyone. Specifically, the second part of the article gives the rights that a child and a mother should enjoy in terms of standards of living. The article specifies that a mother and a child should be subjected to special care and protection. Children are entitled to special care and protection regardless of the circumstances leading to their birth. For example, a child cannot be rejected be the fact that they are born out of wedlock or as a result of the accident. The article specifies that social protection is a right that should be enjoyed by every child. However, article 25 is not the only article recognizing the rights of children.
The right to rest and leisure is specified in the twenty-fourth article of the UNDHR. Children are subject to activities that make them tired and require rest just like any other human being (Sanghera, 2016). The activities that children are involved in include playing and some other light duties but children are fragile and grow tired easily. Children should not be overworked or denied the right to take rest when tired. The right to rest should however not be confused with negligence where parents or guardians could raise lazy children under the excuse of respecting their rights. The rights of children should, therefore, be clearly defined to avoid giving children unnecessary freedom that will only make them grow into irresponsible adults. Also, leisure activities for children should be overseen by adults to ensure that children are not exposed to dangers that might come with leisure. The right for leisure, therefore, incorporates the right to protection, and the rights should be balanced. The rights of children are however explained in detail on the twenty-seventh article of the UNDHR.
The entirety of article 27 describes child rights. The rights defined in the 27th article are a combination of clauses borrowed from other articles such as article 24 and 25. For example, the right to adequate living standards is borrowed from article 25 although the rights in article 27 are specifically for children. Children are entitled to the right of protection by the people responsible such as parents, relatives, guardians, or even the government. Also, the right involves the provision of basic needs and amenities as well as the support for a decent lifestyle. However, the provision of security and needs is subject to the parent’s or the guardian’s financial ability. Children are obliged to be contented with the efforts that their custodians can make although the requirement is that a minimum level should not be allowed for the living standards of a child. The article proves that the rights of the children are similar to those of the adults, but the restrictions differ between the two groups. The issue of child rights has been for decades been politicized with different powers giving different definitions for the rights of their children.
Child Rights as a Political Issue
The involvement of children in politics cannot be taken lightly. Children are involved in politics differently (Stubbs, 2018). The definition of the involvement in politics takes different forms depending on the position that an individual takes when defining the involvement. For example, children could impact politicians’ opinions, could be impacted be politicians’ opinions or could stand against politician opinions. The impact of politics on children is, however, the main issue of concern and children always require protection from politics. The rights of children are defined by individuals who are sometimes led by desires to benefit from the outcomes of such rights. For example, a government that is seeking to gain popularity for reelection could develop definitions for child rights to serve the short term need for popularity. One such right that could be triggered by a need for popularity is the provision of free education instead of the provision of quality education at an affordable cost. A move to provide free education to children could on one side increase the number of children accessing education, but the quality of education provided could considerably go down. Children are therefore on the receiving end of the impacts of politics, and most of the political decisions do not give children an escape option.
Politics are known to control crucial social departments such as the budget and law-making. The decisions made on budget and laws have a direct impact on children. For example, the allocation of funds to take care of children welfare is subject to political influence (Gillett-Swan & Sargeant, 2018). If the allocation is not sufficient, children might suffer and could end up failing to enjoy some of their rights. Also, the laws made by politicians have direct impacts on children. For example, politicians have the power to make laws that define the rights that children are entitled. Children always share opinions that could affect the way a particular government is run. However, the extent to which children are allowed to air their views depends on the laws governing public opinion. Political opinions in several parts of the world are made through a popular vote to elect representatives. However, children are always not allowed to participate in voting until they attain a certain age. The decision on the age at which a child can engage in active politics depends on political opinions in coming up with regulations. For example, if politicians lower the age limit for participation in public opinions, children have a better representation whereas raising the age limit could be a disadvantage to the children. The impact of children on politics is not significant on several occasions.
Children are not vocal enough to impact the political arena as adults would do. The ability of children to engage in active politics is restricted by rights entitled to them as well as the laws set by different political agencies (Blau, 2017). Besides, the requirement that a child has to attain a certain age before being allowed to participate in public opinion making leaves children with limited involvement in politics. Different political agencies have been trying to involve children in politics by allowing representatives to be elected on behalf of the children. However, the representatives are adults who are given the responsibilities that should instead be left to the children. The attempts end up becoming null since only the children can do a fruitful representation of children. The efforts are however faced by the challenge that children may not be in a position to make reformed decisions concerning their needs, and thus adults have to be relied on for the representation of children. Generally, children end up being left out of the political field owing to their lack of decision-making abilities. The parents and guardians are therefore tasked with making decisions on behalf of their children.
In sum, the issue of child rights has been a debate for decades with governments defining different rights for their children. The United Nations Declaration for Human Rights has however specified several rights that should be enjoyed by children. Several articles by the UNDHR specify rights that are specific to children in addition to the universal human rights. The issue of child rights is a political issue. Children are involved in politics in different forms. Generally, children could be impacted by politics or could impact politics.
References
Blau, J. (2017). Human Rights. In The Paris Agreement (pp. 57-73). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Devine, D., & McGillicuddy, D. (2016). Positioning pedagogy—A matter of children’s rights. Oxford Review of Education, 42(4), 424-443.
Doyle, O., & Kenny, D. (2017). Constitutional Change and Interest Group Politics. The Foundations and Traditions of Constitutional Amendment. Oxford: Bloomsbury.
Gillett-Swan, J., & Sargeant, J. (2018). Assuring children’s human right to freedom of opinion and expression in education. International journal of speech-language pathology, 20(1), 120-127.
McGee, D., & Pelham, J. (2018). Politics at play: locating human rights, refugees and grassroots humanitarianism in the Calais Jungle. Leisure Studies, 37(1), 22-35.
Sanghera, G. S. (2016). Child Labour in India: Globalization, Power, and the Politics of International Children’s Rights. OUP Catalogue.
Stubbs, M. (2018). The universal declaration of human rights at 70. Bulletin (Law Society of South Australia), 40(11), 6.