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1 - Theoretical perspectives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

Jane Fortin
Jane Fortin
Affiliation:
University of Sussex
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Summary

Introduction

Children's lives are underpinned by an incoherent hotchpotch of legal principles and government policies. A rights-based approach might address at least some of their weaker aspects very effectively if the government and judiciary were prepared to utilise it more wholeheartedly. In particular, such an approach can address the problem experienced by children, alongside other minority groups, of being the focus of various specialised branches of law and policy, all with their own distinctive character, with no coherence or similarity in objectives. By placing the differing aspects of childhood in a framework of rights, rather than, for example, in a medical or educational-based context, the boundaries between the various disciplines start becoming irrelevant, with a far more coherent outcome being possible.

The time is right for such a change in approach, given the greatly increased level of ‘rights consciousness’ in the country today. The UK's ratification, in 1991, of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the incorporation of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (1950) (ECHR) by the Human Rights Act (HRA) 1998, into domestic law, have undoubtedly played their part in achieving this. There appears now to be more sympathy with a desire to promote children's rights in more realistic and practical ways. Nevertheless, it would be foolish to ignore the real concerns that many retain over the wisdom of utilising the concept of rights to increase children's well-being.

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Children's Rights and the Developing Law , pp. 3 - 32
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009

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  • Theoretical perspectives
  • Jane Fortin, University of Sussex
  • Book: Children's Rights and the Developing Law
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139168625.002
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  • Theoretical perspectives
  • Jane Fortin, University of Sussex
  • Book: Children's Rights and the Developing Law
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139168625.002
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

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  • Theoretical perspectives
  • Jane Fortin, University of Sussex
  • Book: Children's Rights and the Developing Law
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139168625.002
Available formats
×