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With the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of
the Child (1989), commentators began to situate the evolution of
the status of children within the context of the ""property to
persons"" trajectory that other human rights stories had followed.
In the first edition of A Question of Commitment, editors R. Brian
Howe and Katherine Covell provided a template of analysis for
understanding this evolution. They identified three overlapping
stages of development as children transitioned from being regarded
as objects to subjects in their own right: social laissez-faire,
paternalistic protection, and children's rights. In the social
laissez-faire stage, children are regarded as objects, and largely
as the property of parents. In the paternalistic protection stage,
children are seen as vulnerable and in need of protection. The
children's rights stage lays emphasis on children as
rights-bearers, as individuals in their own right with
entitlements. In this second edition, new essays assess the extent
to which children's rights have been incorporated into their
respective areas of policy and law. The authors draw conclusions
about what the situation reveals about the status of children in
Canada. Overall, many challenges remain on the pathway to full
recognition and citizenship.
More than a quarter of a century has passed since Canada promised
to recognize and respect the rights of children under the United
Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Ratification of the
Convention cannot, however, guarantee that everyone will abandon
proprietary notions about children, or that all children will be
free to enjoy the substance of their rights in every social and
institutional context in which they find themselves, including -
and perhaps especially - within families. This disconnect remains
one of the most important challenges to the recognition of
children's rights in Canada.The authors argue that social toxins
are as harmful to children's independent welfare and developmental
interests as environmental toxins, and that both must be eradicated
if Canada is to fulfill its commitments under the Convention. They
also argue that if Canada wishes to ensure the substance of the
rights outlined in the Convention are socially guaranteed, an
attitudinal or cultural shift is required concerning the moral and
legal status of children. This revised, expanded, and updated
edition of the bestselling Challenge of Children's Rights for
Canada will be of interest to academics, policymakers, parents,
teachers, social workers, and human service professionals - indeed
to anyone who cares about and for children.
This book examines the risk factors surrounding children at risk of
experiencing and perpetrating violence, and looks at the positive
role that children's rights can play in their protection. The
authors propose that violence in childhood is not spontaneous: that
children are raised to become violent in poorly functioning
families and child-unfriendly environments. They may be exposed to
toxic substances in utero, to maltreatment in infancy, to domestic
violence or parental criminality as they grow up. Each of these
risk factors is empirically linked with the development of
antisocial and aggressive behaviour, and each reflects a violation
of children's rights to protection from maltreatment. The authors
show how respecting children's rights and safeguarding them from
exposure to violence can shift the balance between risk and
protective factors and, as a result, reduce the incidence and
severity of childhood violence. This book will be essential reading
for professionals working in child protection or with young
offenders, academics, students, practitioners and policy-makers.
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