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Protecting children in different contexts: exploring the value of rights and research
- Author:
- CREWE Emma
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Children's Services, 5(1), March 2010, pp.43-55.
- Publisher:
- Emerald
This article, relying on anthropological principles, explores how the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child fits in with the diversity of ideas about childhood around the world. Child-focused civil society organisations (CSOs) working in Africa, Asia and South America have shifted from organising their work around children's needs to promoting their rights. This rights-based framework is informed by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The author explores the value of global rights, and highlights ethnographic studies investigating the lives of young people and their transition into adulthood, pointing to a diversity of ideas about childhood in different parts of the world. The author also raises the question about whether the idea of universal child rights can accommodate such varied worldviews. CSOs have often failed to take account of this diversity in the way they use rights frameworks. Research by anthropologists about children in three situations - at work, on the move and facing violence - is used here to summarise the problems caused if rights based frameworks are used without sufficient understanding of context and complexity.