1st Edition

The Human Rights of Children From Visions to Implementation

Edited By Jane Williams, Antonella Invernizzi Copyright 2011
    372 Pages
    by Routledge

    372 Pages
    by Routledge

    This volume provides a series of critical analyses of some of the contemporary debates in relation to the human rights of children, resituating them within visions which informed the text of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989. The studies embrace examination of some of today's widespread interpretations of the CRC, analysis of what is implied by a human rights-based approach in research and advocacy and consideration of advances and barriers to research and to several aspects of CRC implementation. With contributions by leading experts in the field, the book examines the CRC as an international instrument, its inherent dilemmas and some of the debates generated by the challenges of implementation. It embraces examinations of different levels of governance from the international to the state party, regional and local levels, including institutional developments and changes in law, policy and practice. The book will be a valuable resource for students, researchers and policy-makers working in the area of children's rights and welfare.

    Contents: Preface; Introduction: human rights of children: from visions to implementation?; The value and values of children's rights, Michael Freeman; Are children's rights still human?, Nigel Cantwell; Understanding a human rights based approach to matters involving children: conceptual foundations and strategic considerations, John Tobin; The CRC: dynamics and directions of monitoring its implementation, Jaap E. Doek; Acknowledging children as international citizens: a child-sensitive communication mechanism for the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Geraldine van Bueren; Has research improved the human rights of children? Or have the information needs of the CRC improved data about children?, Judith Ennew; How are the human rights of children related to research methodology?, Harriot Beazley, Sharon Bessell, Judith Ennew and Roxana Waterson; Using the Convention on the Rights of the Child in law and policy: two ways to improve compliance, Ursula Kilkelly; Using the CRC to inform EU law and policy-making, Helen Stalford and Eleanor Drywood; The roles of independent children's rights institutions in implementing the CRC, Brian Gran; Multi-level governance and CRC implementation, Jane Williams; Human rights and child poverty in the UK: time for change, Rhian Croke and Anne Crowley; An exploration of the discrimination-rights dynamic in relation to children, Elspeth Webb; Child health equity: from theory to reality, Jeffrey Goldhagen and Raúl Mercer; Our rights, our story: Funky Dragon's report to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, Funky Dragon; Index.

    Biography

    Dr Antonella Invernizzi is a Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Child Research at the University of Wales, Swansea. She has published extensively in the areas of Family organisation; poverty and survival strategies; gender; children’s work and child labour. Jane Williams is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Wales, Swansea. A former practising barrister, her research interests are in the areas of Human Rights, particularly children's rights, and law and policy. She has published widely on these and related areas.

    'Anyone who wishes to understand children's rights as human rights, to engage with the ongoing challenges associated with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, or to meaningfully empower children themselves to make use of their rights, will find helpful and in-depth suggestions in this book.' Manfred Liebel, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany 'This book firmly repositions children’s rights where they belong: in the realm of human rights. It makes a most welcome case for taking the Convention on the Rights of the Child seriously also as a human rights instrument. It thus makes a distinct contribution to a growing body of critical self-reflection within the children’s rights community.' Wouter Vandenhole, University of Antwerp Law Research School, Belgium