Children's Human Rights - An Interdisciplinary Introduction

Go to Course: https://www.coursera.org/learn/childrens-rights

Introduction

**Course Review: Children's Human Rights - An Interdisciplinary Introduction on Coursera** In today's increasingly interconnected world, understanding children's rights is more vital than ever. The course "Children’s Human Rights - An Interdisciplinary Introduction" offered on Coursera embarks on a profound exploration of children's rights through the lenses of various academic disciplines, including law, psychology, sociology, and health sciences. This comprehensive curriculum offers learners a unique opportunity to delve into both historical and contemporary issues affecting children's rights on a global scale. ### Course Overview The course adopts an interdisciplinary approach, educating participants about the evolution of children’s rights and the myriad challenges they face worldwide. By studying the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and its implications, students will gain a thorough understanding of the legal frameworks in place to protect vulnerable children and the varying societal responses to their needs across different cultures and contexts. The format is engaging, interactive, and thoughtfully structured to appeal to learners from diverse backgrounds. ### Syllabus Breakdown 1. **International Standards and Monitoring Systems**: - The course starts with an in-depth analysis of the CRC, exploring its origins, content, and the international political landscape that facilitated its adoption. This foundation is critical for understanding subsequent discussions on monitoring practices that uphold children's rights worldwide. 2. **The History of Children’s Rights in Human Rights Context**: - The second module traces the historical evolution of children's rights, emphasizing significant events and changes over centuries. This approach encourages critical thinking about how societal perceptions of childhood have shifted and the roles played by various actors in championing children's rights throughout history. 3. **Interdisciplinary Children’s Rights Studies**: - This module introduces students to the field of children’s rights, highlighting its interdisciplinary nature and the connections to sociology and anthropology. The course encourages participants to think about current research and how it influences practices supporting children's rights. 4. **Juvenile Justice**: - Delving into one of the most sensitive areas within children’s rights, this module examines the legal issues surrounding juvenile justice. It lays bare the challenges and violations children face in legal systems, compelling learners to reflect on what constitutes a child-friendly justice system. 5. **Violence Against Children**: - This module addresses the stark reality of violence against children globally, allowing participants to engage with the statistics and societal implications of child victimization. It also discusses institutional and professional responses to such violence, fostering a deeper awareness of necessary protective measures. 6. **Children’s Right to Participation**: - A groundbreaking module that discusses children's participation rights, challenging traditional views on childhood and agency. It combines theory with practical considerations about enabling children to express their views effectively, thus promoting their autonomy. 7. **Children’s Rights and Global Health**: - The course culminates with discussions around health as a vital component of children's rights. Participants examine how harmful traditional practices affect children's health and development, connecting the dots between global health and children's rights advocacy. ### Conclusion and Recommendation "Children’s Human Rights - An Interdisciplinary Introduction" on Coursera is not simply a course; it is an eye-opening journey into the heart of the issues children face today. The curriculum is robust and engaging, making it suitable for students, advocates, and professionals interested in child welfare and human rights. The interdisciplinary perspective enriches understanding and encourages critical thought about how various fields intersect in protecting children. I highly recommend this course to anyone keen on comprehensively grasping children's rights, whether you are a student pursuing a career in social sciences, an educator, or a policy-maker looking to enhance your understanding of global child rights issues. By the end of this course, participants will feel empowered with knowledge, context, and a greater sense of responsibility to advocate for children’s rights worldwide.

Syllabus

International standards and monitoring systems

The module begins with the presentation of the background, origins and main content of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), and provides details about the preparatory work and the international political context in which the Convention was drafted. The content of international human rights norms are discussed using the subdivision between civil and political rights on the one hand, and economic, social and cultural rights on the other. Furthermore, the general UN human rights monitoring mechanisms will be introduced, followed by the presentation of the CRC monitoring system. A discussion on the importance of regional human rights monitoring systems for children in Africa, Asia and Latin America will be the subject of a specific round table. Within the monitoring framework a particular attention is dedicated to role of key actors: Independent National Human Rights Institutions (INHRIs) on Children’s rights, Non-Governmental organizations (NGOs) and children.

This module provides an overview of the evolution of children's rights before the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Based on a chronological approach, it is a comprehensive social and cultural history of children's rights, of the way they developed over the course of the last centuries. While not building on a strict history of diplomatic relations, this module provides an international perspective on this evolution. It aims to underline the multiplicity of actors, networks and organizations involved in the defense and promotion of children's rights, over time. Also, it emphasizes crucial moments of this history, such as the adoption of international legal instruments on the rights of the child, the two World Wars, etc. This module will nonetheless challenge common understandings of the history of children's rights. For instance, instead of describing it as a linear success story, it will highlight progress as well as failures. Also, the idea that the rights of the child are a 20th Century invention will be balanced. By doing so, we aim to provide a complex understanding of the history of children's rights and detailed contexts for the topics they cover (e.g. child labor, juvenile justice, etc.) and that will be studied later in this MOOC.

The module will provide a general introduction to the field of children’s rights studies. It will emphasize the interdisciplinary outlook of the field and will present schools of thought in children’s rights. Furthermore, we will show the links between children’s rights and the sociology and anthropology of childhood and provide some examples of recent children’s rights research and practice.

The field of Juvenile Justice (JJ) or of systems of Justice specialized for children in conflict with the law, is the field of children’s rights where the international community has drafted the largest amount of legislation (national, regional and international). It is obviously a very sensitive field where child rights violations are numerous, where violence in institutions must be deplored, and where the response is not always child-friendly, and does not systematically favor individual child development. It is moreover a domain where the State exerts its power in response to child offenses, very often through the deprivation of liberty ; and where the State’s interference also represses non-criminal behavior (running away, breaking disciplinary rules, breaking curfews, …), all of these actions would not be legally reprehensible if committed by an adult (status offence). And, alas this field of JJ sometimes accounts for violations of children’s rights at the hands of States themselves: in the arrest phase, in administrative detention, in the execution of judiciary sentences, but also in institutional care. The issue of JJ also includes children victims and witnesses.

Protection is a central pillar in the field of children’s rights and a dimension that probably, along with health and education, captures most of society’s financial outlays in favour of children. Because of their young age and their physical status, children are much more vulnerable than other social groups and indeed the victimisation of children around the world reaches staggering proportions. In this module, we will examine various forms of age-old and emerging forms of violence against children, the institutional and professional responses to the phenomenon.

Art. 12 to 17 and art. 31 UNCRC are considered to refer to “participation rights”. These rights are considered the most “revolutionary” under the provisions of the UNCRC because they challenge traditional and tokenistic conceptions of childhood. The challenge however also lies in the balance to be found, in all settings, between structural adaptations necessary to favour child participation and the evolving capacities of the children themselves, who can only progressively exert their own rights directly. Another aspect is participation of children as individuals or as groups, notably their collective decision-making capacity. It looks like practice has outstripped theory. The difference between the child as a subject of rights and the child’s real agency as a social actor needs more theoretical frameworks, as the problem of implementation is also a problem of our own understanding of agency. Among the modes of recognition, rights are only a limited part of the reality experienced by children mainly in terms of affection and esteem. The challenges of implementing children’s participation rights in a series of settings, as recommended by CRC General Comment Nr 12, are therefore conveying an analysis of the terms used (maturity, freely expressed views, etc.) that may include children’s own perspectives on these issues. Examples of procedures for the implementation of children’s participation rights highlight all these challenges and the difficulties of defining good indicators of child participation. Besides, child participation should also be guaranteed even when children are viewed as “deviant” or “delinquent”: the respect for child participation in judicial settings highlights the complex interplay between one’s status and one’s rights in practice. Eventually, as child participation should be guaranteed in all settings, research itself should be child-friendly and participative and ethical principles for researchers must be specified when dealing with children.

Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity (Preamble to the Constitution of the World Health Organization 22 July 1946). Certain traditional practices committed on children compromise sometimes severely both their physical and moral development and thus affect their health. These practices while explicitly prohibited by the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) at. art. 24.3 CRC are widely committed in quasi total impunity. Even if some traditional harmful practices concern more specific regions of the globe, due to migratory movements, in fine every State is concerned. Global health is a universal concept of human rights and contributes to, the realization of many other children’s rights such as the right of non-discrimination (art. 2 CRC), the right to life, survival and development (art.6 CRC), the right to participation (art. 12 CRC) the right to privacy (art. 16 CRC) or the right to access to information (art. 17 CRC). Placing children’s rights in the context of traditional harmful practices and global health, adopting a child’s rights based approach, contributes to a better understanding of the problem and thus to a better care of the victims.