A Magna Carta for Children?: Rethinking Children's Rights (The Hamlyn Lectures)
Cambridge University Press, 10/1/2020
EAN 9781316606674, ISBN10: 1316606678
Paperback, 586 pages, 21.6 x 14 x 3.2 cm
Language: English
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is the most widely ratified human rights treaty in the world, yet everyday children still face poverty, violence, war, disease and disaster. Are the rights we currently afford to children enough? Combining historical analysis with international human rights law, Michael Freeman considers early legal and philosophical theories on children's rights before exploring the impact and limitations of the Convention itself. He also suggests ways that we may rethink children's rights in the future as well as identifying key areas for reform. This book will appeal to an interdisciplinary audience who are interested in children's rights, children's studies, the history of childhood, international human rights, and comparative family law. It is a crucial restatement of the importance of law, policy and rights in improving children's lives.
Prelude
Part I. 1. Are children human?
2. Interlude – taking a deep breath
Part II. Even Lawyers Were Children Once
3. The Convention on the Rights of the Child and its principles
4. The Convention – norms and themes
5. Enforcing children's rights
6. Criticisms of the Convention
7. Beyond the Convention
8. Interlude – what we can learn from the sociology of childhood
9. Childhoods and rights
10. Regional children's rights
11. Child friendly justice
12. The world 25 years on
new issues and responses
Part III. A Magna Carta for Children
13. Rethinking children's rights
14. Alternatives to rights – or are they?
15. A Magna Carta for children?
16. Rethinking principles and concepts
17. Conclusion
18. Coda – a child of our time.