How Children's Rights towards Self-Determination and Autonomy Are Exploited by Society - Essay Example

HOW CHILDRENS RIGHTS TOWARDS SELF-DETERMINATION AND AUTONOMY ARE EXPLOITED AND EMPOWERED BY SOCIETY AND ADULTS By Introduction According to historians, the concept of childhood, which is now termed a social construct came into existence approximately 400 to 600 years ago. Before this time, children and adults could hardly be told apart; they engaged in same pastimes and dressed similarly. However, during the Reformation and the Renaissance periods, a new perspective of handling children came into existence. They were perceived of as being weak and innocent when compared to adults. Additionally, discipline was considered mandatory for them if they were to mature into appropriate adults. This introduced a form of quarantine, which provided specific segregation of children from adults under which freewill only existed as words. Children were subjected under adults’ wills; putting up with repressive child-rearing strategies and intense disciplinary measures (Classen 2005, p.6). In the 1970s, the issue of children’s rights came into being and has since gained much ground with regards to acknowledging that they too, have rights and interests. As such, they should be treated differently from adults. In the light of these, the following study text will critically evaluate the debates that exist regarding children’s autonomy and self-determination, examine key legislations on children’s rights in different settings, and finally examine the role of service providers and professionals as determined by law and inter-agency guidance. Archard (2009, p. 1) differs with the Philosopher John Locke, who he accuses of portraying a dualism in the perception of children. During Locke’s time, the debate of whether children have rights or not were at a climax. As a philosopher, Locke was expected to have much influence; which he did. However, as Archard claims, he pointed at children as beings who demanded ideal care as they were being nurtured to be good citizens. On the other hand, he termed of them as “imperfect reasoners and blank sheets filled with experience (Archard 2009, p.2). Archard strongly opposes these notions, terming them as outdated traditional thinking. In a nutshell, Locke had implied that children have no full freedom to exercise and that adults posses all the power above them. According to him, children lack reasoning and self-sufficiency and whoever lacks these cannot have freedom. Archard however, feels that children should not have paths created for them. Rather, they should be left to experience and learn on their own. In this way, he wrote, children would be better citizens capable of making mature and informed decisions about their lives and those of others. Again, he believes that reasoning should be evaluated through the state of mind and not a matter of age. It may appear like Locke’s time was the only one where children were not perceived of as fragile creatures who required special treatment and allocation of full rights. This thought of feeling would be overly misplaced. In contemporary times, children continue being faced by denial of full rights through denial of basic needs and the rights to life. It is startling that even world powers such as the United States breach policies meant to empower and protect children such as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. During the Bush administration, Ambassador Southwick openly distanced the US’s recognition of the Conventions, meaning it did not care much what it had to state about children. This not only portrayed the notion that children would continue to suffer but also that the advocacy for their rights was far from achieving its objectives (Franklin 2002, p. 2). As such debates continue, the brutal reality continued to hit the world; above a quarter of all children in the world live in absolute poverty. This is because poverty and childhood co-exist. The world over, about 120 million children aged above 5 years and below 14 years work full time. An additional 130 million in the same age bracket work part time. Children’s atrocities do not stop at that: there are over 2 million deaths of children occurring from preventable diseases. Again, above 600 million children who qualify to be in primary school lack access to the crucial service. To worsen matters, children under 5 years, numbering about 160 million are malnourished, while 800 million lack access to health care. Finally, about 183 million children globally weight underweight. The United States as a world power has been accused of fostering the exploitation of children through ignorance. For instance, while millions of children suffer and die from malnutrition, Americans alone spend 5 billion dollars annually on special diets. In 1988, 200 US dollars were devoted per person in major world nations to cater for warfare. The irony is that they claim to be unable to provide a minimal 5 US dollars per child in poor nations. In that year alone, 14 million children died due to the “unavailability” of 5 US dollars. Additionally, spring water is processed and shipped overseas for high markets while close to 2 billion people bathe and drink contaminated water (Franklin 2002, p.1). Collectively, these occurrences justify that indeed, children’s rights are being overlooked, and that the world needs to come together in addressing the issue. It is important to understand childrens rights and differentiate them from luxuries or secondary needs. By definition, children’s rights are those very basic necessities that the child needs in order to attain maximum healthy potential to enable them to live without suffering (David 2004, p.16). These necessities range from social services to health, early year’s provisions, school, play, legal matters, food, expression of freedom, and all services recommended for children. The debate of children’s rights is far-fetched and is based on the fact that if children are not provided with what they need during their early years, then they are unlikely to develop into appropriate adults. This notion is supported by Deci and Ryan (2000, p. 227) who introduce the Self-determination theory. The theory denotes that a perfect human is constituted of a balance between relatedness, autonomy, and competence. This theory is based on further early needs theories which specify that for an organism to be satisfied, remain healthy, and have self-drive, it must be provided with the necessary innate physiological demands. This is because a relationship exists between response and stimulus in which case both are determined by the availability of these needs. Alderson (2008, p.16) feels that the contemporary world is torn between providing and denying children their rights. This is because on one side, children’s rights are being highly advocated while at the same time, their rights are being swept under the rug. She defines rights as the very basic needs that keep a child happy or satisfied. For instance, she criticizes the issue of commercialization of children’s public places and locking up of school playgrounds during holidays. This is a form of denying children’s rights since it creates the perception that their rights are luxuries and that whoever accesses them is lucky. In addition, the concept that children can only go on vacations or outing planned by guardians and parents is also a limitation of their rights. While parents and guardians may not be legally forced to love their children, they can be prosecuted for abuse and neglect of children. This is the reason why in recent times, governments, agencies, professionals and international bodies have come up with laws that seek to govern the provision of children’s rights. This has come at a time when it became evident that the issue of children’s rights had been misunderstood or ignored overall, and that their self-determination and autonomy had to be restored and protected. The United Nations, mandated with providing and securing the rights of everyone, acknowledged that childhood is entitled to assistance and special care. Following this, it came up with rules that govern the treatment of children, which is anyone below the age of 18 years, before and after birth. The 1989 Convention highlights the provision of all necessities to children regardless of any discriminatory factors. The laws outlined in the Convention are mandated to a state which is termed as the implementing party (UNCRC). According to UNICEF (2006, p.12), the Convention, and all human rights attributed to children should be governed by four principles; non-discrimination, respect for children’s views, the right to survival, life and development, and finally the best interests of the child. Society, through family and adults can empower children’s self-determination and autonomy. First, the family plays a key role in this. It has been proven that in nurturing a child by providing a supportive and loving family environment, their chances of emotional, social, growth, intellectual, and survival are increased further. Additionally, children should not be exposed to vices such as violence within the family or physical, psychological and sexual abuse. These can be achieved by adhering to the four principles as highlighted by UNICEF. In the event that a child is deprived of family by factors such as parents’ death, service providers such as children’s homes and related agencies mediate by providing the children with the much needed care. Apart from orphans, Jones and Walker (2011, p.9) reveal that local services come up with initiatives that develop and support children’s participation groups in societal matters. Additionally, they further the involvement of vulnerable groups such as disabled children in activities such as advice, knowing their rights and responsibilities, making lifestyle changes, fun and play activities, and expressing their opinions to mention but a few. States or governments also play a role in empowering children’s rights. They can do this by first of all ensuring that parents are responsible for their children, and that they do not dispose them off at their wish (Archard 2004, p.10). This means application of legal means. States also oversee the empowerment through birth registration. By registering births, a child enjoys many rights such as protection and participation, food security, citizenship, health care, and education amongst others. Inter-agency intervention is applied in this governmental application in that they are used to reach out to remote areas and communities. This method is effective in terms of costs and efficiency in that civil registrars go to the grassroots level and engage parents in embracing child registration. In so doing, the mentioned rights of children apply, thus empowerment of self-determination and autonomy is achieved. One of the most important means of implementing children’s rights is through early education. As Abbott and Nutbrown (2001, p.4) reveal, contemporary early childhood education puts the consideration of children’s autonomy first. As such, they devise multiple approaches of teaching young children by integrating content which provides such into their curriculums. These approaches have been arrived at after it was discovered that depending on the quality and type of education that a child is exposed to in their early days, so will the quality of their future be affected. As such, the way and content included in children’s early education is highly developed. Further insight into the application and success of this strategy is provided by Reggio Emilia, a North Italian municipality which began setting up educational services for children aged below 6 years. The municipality provides quality and favourite environments for children’s learning and plays, they promote collegiality, and emphasize on the co-participation of families in their projects. Apart from the children, they train staff on working with children. Parents too are taught on how best to co-exist with their children while influencing them positively. Key themes in the projects are children’s learning, early childhood cultures, and special educational needs. These themes are taught on how they should be incorporated into children’ lives so as to ensure they acquire the optimum growing environments where autonomy and self-determination are nurtured to the maximum. Conclusion The aim of this study text was to highlight how childrens rights towards self-determination and autonomy are exploited and empowered by society and adults. There existed, and still exist, debates regarding whether children have full rights or not. This controversy that began in the Middle Age has been attracting different reactions and opinions. It has been argued that children are not fully mature cognitively, and as such cannot make informed decisions. This contributed to their being put under the watch and command of their parents or guardians. In recent times, however, children’s autonomy has been growing globally as professionals, governments, human rights bodies, and inter-agency co-operations have strongly united to solve the issue. Concisely, the child has been termed as vulnerable and requiring special nurture for them to grow into appropriate adults. As such, these have seen governments provide birth registration; families support their children, private bodies taking care of orphans and marginalized children, and finally early childhood education integrating related measures into its curriculum. In conclusion, it is evident that the child’s rights have for long been ignored, but by the look of recent developments, the child is bound to enjoy self-determination and full autonomy in the near future. Bibliography Abbott, L, & Nutbrown, C 2001, Experiencing Reggio Emilia: Implications for Preschool Provision, Michigan: Open University Press. Alderson, P 2008, Young Children’s Rights: Exploring Beliefs, Principles and Practice, Jessica Kingley Publishers. Archard, D 2004, Chidren: Rights and Childhood, New York: Routledge. Classen, A 2005, Childhood in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance: The Results of Paradigm Shift in the History of Mentality, Walter de Gruyter. David, P 2004, Human Rights in Youth Sport: A critical Review of Children’s Rights in Competitive Sport. New York: Routledge. Deci, E, & Ryan, R 2000, “The ‘What’ and ‘Why’ of Goal Pursuits: Human Needs and the Self-Determination of Behavior”, Psychological Inquiry 11(4): 227-268. Franklin, B 2002, The New Handbook of Children’s Rights: Comparative Policy and Practice, New York: Routledge. Jones, P, & Walker, G 2011, Children’s Rights in Practice, SAGE Publications. UNCRC 1989, “Convention on the Rights of the Child”, United Nations. UNICEF 2006, “Implementing Child Rights in Early Childhood”, Hague: United Nations. Read More