Childhoods in Policy: A Critical Analysis of National Child Protection Policy in the Philippines

This article investigates policy in the Philippines relating to the protection of children, which, despite policy efforts in this space, and growing evidence of child maltreatment and its impact, remains unexamined by the literature. It examines constructions of childhoods utilising a critical policy analysis of national policy documents concerning children's welfare and protection. Analysis finds conflicting representations of children's agency, defining children as ‘becomings’, but also as rights holders and social actors, viewing children as both embedded in, and reliant on, family, consequently detailing important insights into Filipino policy‐making and society.     

The Role of Gesture in Children's Comprehension of Spoken Language:Now They Need It, Now They Don't

Two experiments investigated gesture as a form of external support for spoken language comprehension. In both experiments, children selected blocks according to a set of videotaped instructions. Across trials, the instructions were given using no gesture, gestures that reinforced speech, and gestures that conflicted with speech. Experiment 1 used spoken messages that were complex for preschool children but not for kindergarten children. Reinforcing gestures facilitated speech comprehension for preschool children but not for kindergarten children, and conflicting gestures hindered comprehension for kindergarten children but not for preschool children. Experiment 2 tested preschool children with simpler spoken messages. Unlike Experiment 1, preschool children's comprehension was not facilitated by reinforcing gestures. However, children's comprehension also was not hindered by conflicting gestures. Thus, the effects of gesture on speech comprehension depend both on the relation of gesture to speech, and on the complexity of the spoken message.     

Human rights for women: battles of culture and power

In Africa, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) focussing on human rights have mushroomed during the past 10-15 years, and, with several of these organizations run by and for women, it is possible to find free legal aid for women in almost every capital city. The collapse of the extended family and, thus, the framework for customary law has meant that women are faced with problems of maintenance and widows with problems of inheritance. Customary law and the protection it afforded women and children has also been weakened by a poverty-driven shift in urban areas from a focus on community support to a focus on individual survival. The vacuum left by this change in legal and social structure is being filled by the human rights NGOs. Paradoxically, in the face of such change, a static, communal, and neutral concept of "culture" was held out by African state representatives at the 1993 UN Conference on Human Rights to justify their opposition to the acceptance of the crosscultural legitimacy of human rights, especially for women. While these arguments were being aired at the Conference, African NGOs were vigorously using examples of the marginalization of women to promote the opposite view. The most important aspect of these conflicting views is which group has the most power and resources to voice its interpretation of the situation. With most African countries governed by a dual system of laws, customary law and common or civil law (left over from colonialism), human rights groups are working to instill human rights principles into common law through the ratification of international conventions. Thus, persons in need could be viewed not as victims but as individuals entitled to enforceable and universal rights. Misuse of the term "culture" can marginalize women even as it is being promoted as a protective device for women. A more useful view of culture is as something which transcends traditional boundaries and locates people and institutions in the global community where they are protected by the acknowledgement of their human rights.     

农村留守儿童平等发展权理论新思考

留守儿童问题从诞生之日起蕴含的实质就是对留守儿童平等发展权赤裸裸的剥夺,破译留守儿童问题的实质就是解决留守儿童平等发展权问题,用“发展权研究范式”取代“问题研究范式”才能跳出既有研究框架的窠臼。以平等发展权的崭新视角审视留守儿童平等发展权尚未厘清的核心理论,集留守儿童主体因素、权利的客体因素、平等发展的内容因素、留守儿童权利体系的地位因素于一体定义留守儿童平等发展权．从人权分析三要素对留守儿童平等发展权的构造进行鼎新阐释,探析留守儿童平等发展权的人权特征及其人权本原,既是发展权理论的丰富、发展和创新,又是严重匮乏的留守儿童平等发展权理论建构的奠基性环节。     

Fostering Free Movement of Persons in West Africa: Achievements, Constraints, and Prospects for Intraregional Migration

Migration in West Africa is strongly influenced by poverty, depressed economies, and socio-political crises. The influx of migrants into the cities and irregular migrations across national borders in search of decent living conditions reflect a crisis of development. To understand the dynamics of these diverse migrations, we focus on causes and changing configurations of emerging migratory flows; autonomous female migration, trafficking in women and children; intraregional migration as alternatives to "illegal" migration to the North; progress and constraints in creating a borderless subregion and fostering intraregional migration.
The abolition of the mandatory residency permit, introduction of Brown Card travel certificates, and the elimination of the ubiquitous border formalities are aimed at facilitating intraregional movements of persons. Progress was constrained by multiple cooperation groupings and memberships, conflicting objectives, inconsistent political support, growing national identity, depressed economies, and xenophobia against "foreigners". We suggest that governments should align national employment laws with regional treaties, protect the rights of migrant workers, promote pro-poor employment strategies, adopt variable speed approach in implementing migration policies, and enforce migrants' rights of residence and establishment.     

Children's rights: developments and prospects

The decade since International Year of the Child has witnessed a variety of suggestions and initiatives to promote the rights of children. Proposals for ombudswork with children, a Minister for Children, a Children's Congress, a Children's Rights Officer, a Youth Charter and Youth Councils are each critically assessed. It is argued that the forthcoming Convention on the Rights of the Child may prove less effective in winning rights for children than its advocates imagine. The author concludes that rights for children are less likely to be achieved by adopting any specific group of reforms, than by acknowledging and supporting the principle that, wherever possible, children should be encouraged to make decisions for themselves and act on their own behalf     

Counseling minors without parental consent

Counseling services provided to minors without parental knowledge or consent are based on uncertain and often conflicting policies and procedures. This article examines these services from legal and psychological perspectives, explores current agency policies and practices, and makes recommendations with regard to the counseling needs and rights of minors.     

Protection of Rights of Adopted Children in Relation to Duties of Adoptive Parents Under the Law in Malaysia

The relationship between parents and children can be established either through “blood,” marriage, or adoption. This relationship gives rise to certain rights and obligations. This article seeks to examine the protection of those rights of adopted children under the law in Malaysia and to evaluate the extent to which the law protects the rights of adopted children. This article will also examine whether the law in Malaysia imposes certain duties on the adoptive parents in fulfilling such rights.     

The Rise of the New South Governmentality: Competing Southern Revitalization Projects and Police Responses to the Black Civil Rights Movement 1961–1965

This article examines the southern response to the civil rights movement and its relationship to the broader struggle for southern influence and control. Drawing from governmentality studies and the concept of “security”, I trace the correlation of two competing southern revitalization projects with distinct southern policing styles to consider the importance of normative political cultures, rather than the instrumental and immediate political outcomes of each local movement, on the southern response to the civil rights movement. Despite the development of new south police practices that curtained civil rights protest and produced a politically modern and racially tolerant idealized new south image, the old south project, in its failures, gained influence on the county, statewide, and regional levels. Although the conflicting revitalization projects differed in their objectives, the linkages between them set the stage for subsequent southern revitalization and development that started in the 1970s.     

Indigenous peoples,the city and inclusive urban development policies in Latin America: Lessons from Bolivia and Ecuador

The historical construction of indigeneity as essentially rural policy category represents a key cause for the ongoing exclusion of urban indigenous peoples and blocks progress in delivering Agenda 2030 in Latin American cities. Even in Bolivia and Ecuador, where urban indigeneity is recognized through constitutional reforms, there are obstacles to the delivery of policies shaped to urban indigenous interests. By reviewing experiences from these countries, this article highlights that policy delivery problems are a result of multiple factors, including (1) rural constructions of indigeneity, (2) conflicting development priorities, and (3) difficulties in promoting universal rights while simultaneously guaranteeing indigenous rights. The article concludes with policy recommendations for more inclusive urban development approaches which leave no indigenous person behind.     

Towards Greater Recognition of the Right to Play: An Analysis of Article 31 of the UNCRC

Children’s right to play is formally enshrined in Article 31 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). However, few research studies have explored children’s experiences of play from an explicit rights‐based perspective. Using children’s views to illustrate the multi‐dimensional relationship Article 31 holds with other key children’s rights, this article shows how a rights‐based classification of play emphasises issues such as freedom, safety, choice and inclusion. The article highlights the fact that while Article 31 has provided an impetus for play policies throughout the UK, these have not been developed from an explicit rights‐based perspective. The article concludes by suggesting that the Committee on the Rights of the Child could take a greater lead on this issue through more robust monitoring and enforcement of Article 31.     

When the rehabilitation ideal fails: a study of parental rights termination

This study explored the circumstances of parents whose extreme neglect and abuse of their young children justified the drastic state action of termination of their parental rights. Records of 97 children age 6 and under whose parental rights were terminated between 1991 and 1997 in Minnesota were reviewed. Profiles of parents and children were drawn from these data, and a "risk pool" of parents whose children became wards of the state was identified. Guidelines are drawn from this "risk pool" that may help alert practitioners to those parents who are unlikely to safely maintain their children. Questions and implications for policy and practice are highlighted.     

The Efficacy of Prevention:

This article examines the status of children in selected parts of Southern Africa against the backdrop of current sociopolitical upheavals and weak economies that have kept some of these countries at the periphery of economic development. Given the limitations of international human rights legislations to enforce laws protecting children, without violating the rights of sovereign states and the limited social welfare resources, an ecological approach is used to argue for population control measures that have the efficacy of promoting the well-being of children and ensuring their survival.     

Interviews with Children Exposed to Violence

The aim of this article is to show how research practices may simultaneously follow principles of children’s citizenship rights to participation and principles of protection and support when children exposed to violence are informants. The article focuses upon organisation of interview processes and interactions between adult researchers and child informants in interview encounters. We point to a number of ways in which one may negotiate the tensions between, on the one hand, victimised children’s vulnerability and dependence upon adults for protection and support, and on the other these children’s agency and rights to participation.     

Affordance of Participation Rights for Children in Home‐based Education and Care: An Interactive Process Model of Participation — 2007

Recent models relating to the affordance of children’s participation rights, based on articles 12 and 13 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights Of the Child (1989) , have focused on the role of and strategies used by the adults working with children (Children and Society 10 , 2001: 107–117; Children and Society 20 , 2006: 209–222). Whilst these adults play a pivotal role in affording participation rights, children, and their parents/family/whānau, play an equally important role. This paper explores the complex interplay of roles, relationships, and strategies used by adults and children in home‐based education settings in Aotearoa/New Zealand, that support the affordance of participation rights for children. It identifies key aspects of practice that underpin this, and presents an alternative model of participation that is in keeping with a sociocultural approach to children’s learning and development, and acknowledges them, in the right conditions, as having a voice and agency as citizens in their own right.     

Hiding and seeking: Children's lived experiences during COVID-19

A qualitative study explored the perspectives and lived experiences of school-age children during COVID-19 using a child rights lens. Twenty children between the ages of 7 and 12 participated in open-ended, virtual interviews. Our hermeneutic analysis found children's right to play and education were severely compromised leaving children to navigate between two worlds: the adult world of public health restrictions and that of their childhood. Despite challenges and lost childhood opportunities, children emerged as competent social agents and responsible citizens. Planning for future pandemics should include policies and practices that balance public health needs with the protection of children's rights.     

The future of children's rights

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child was a great achievement. The rights strategy must continue to be pursued. The Convention itself is an imperfect instrument and a new Convention or Protocols needs to address many children whose rights are currently neglected, including disabled children, gay children, girl children and street children. Rights themselves need rethinking, and so does the reporting and implementation process. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Tenures in Transition,Tenures in Conflict: Examples from the Zimbabwe Social Forest1

The landscapes of rural communities are commonly divided into areas in which distinctive resource uses are practiced and for which there exist particular types of property rights. Such tenure niches for different resources may overlap where those resources themselves occupy the same space (e.g., land and trees). Further, competing legal and utilization systems (e.g., national and local) may place the same resource in different incompatible tenure niches. Conflict may involve overlapping tenure niches. Co-management by conflicting right-holders may offer a solution.     

On Childhood and the Logic of Difference: Some Empirical Examples

This article argues that universal documents on children’s rights can provide illustrative examples as to how childhood is identified as a unity using difference as an instrument. Using Gille Deleuze’s theorising on difference and sameness as a framework, the article seeks to relate the children’s rights project with a critique of representation. It seeks to illustrate how the children’s rights project seems to be promoting an image of childhood that is sharply contrasted by adulthood in a dichotomised sense, as well as how, in these documents, the fate of the child is being intertwined with the fate of the state.     

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child: Its Relevance for Adolescents

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC, United Nations General Assembly, 1989) is a transformative document which has already improved the lives of millions of young people worldwide. Ratified into law by the majority of the countries of the world, it is the first human rights treaty focusing specifically on the rights of individuals under 18 years of age. The rights described in the treaty, however, are often seen as more important for younger children than for adolescents. This policy statement reviews the germane research on the period of adolescence and affirms that the protections and entitlements in the CRC are as important for adolescents as for younger children. Recommendations for policy and research are included.