TOWARD A RIGHTS-SENSITIVE AGENDA

FOR RESEARCH ON CHILD WELL-BEING

Gary B. Melton

Institute on Family and Neighborhood LifeClemson UniversityClemson, SC, USA

International Society for Child Indicators

November 4, 20091

TASKS Consider the nature of human rights, as applied to children

Identify the implications for topics and methods of child research

Propose a normative framework for analysis of findings

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PSYCHOLOGICAL JURISPRUDENCE• Show how to match legal principles (especially in

re human dignity) to social reality• Enhance sense of community by illuminating

common values• Clarify process of legal socialization, to facilitate

development of democratic values• Enable policymakers to develop and refine rules

and establish structures consistent with promotion of human welfare

• Increase the perceived legitimacy of the legal system and enhance respect for the law

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CORE PRINCIPLESUniversal Declaration of Human

Rights (1948)All human beings are born

free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. (art. 1)

Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law. (art. 6)

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THE APPLICATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS

TO CHILDREN Philosophical foundation: Children deserve

respect as persons with actual or potential capacity for reason and, therefore, with inherent dignity as human beings

Legal foundation: Logical corollary to full recognition of the humanity of other disadvantaged groups

If “everyone” has rights, then how can children be excluded from such entitlements?

Theological foundation: Children are people created in the image of God, and therefore are owed the respect and loving care that are corollary to that status (see, e.g., World Vision) 5

PHILOSOPHICAL CHALLENGES Key question is not whether children should be

treated like adults but instead whether they should be treated like people

Shift from primary societal interest in children’s socialization Development as future citizens Protection of children’s well-being Facilitation of their meaningful participation in the

community

‘Child advocates’ have conflicts of interest Particular issues General orientation: Kiddie lib or child saver?

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Communitarian or Individualist? Yes!

Respect for personal dignity implies social responsibility to safeguard intimacy. Individual rights lack meaning without social relatedness; relationships are unsatisfying without mutual respect. Accordingly, personal autonomy is maximized in the context of community; social cohesion is most likely when rights talk is taken seriously.

Gary Melton, in Nebraska Symposium on Motivation (1995)7

The first law of our being is that we

are setin a delicate network of

interdependencewith our fellow human beings….

We are meant to live as sisters and brothers, as members of one family,

the human family….Archbishop Desmond Tutu 8

Where after all, do human rights begin?

In small places, close to home—so close and so small they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in, the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world. Eleanor Roosevelt, in a speech to the United

Nations (1958)9

QUERY: WHAT IS THE SCOPE OF THE CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD?

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SHORT ANSWER:Wherever government and children both go, the Convention goes; e.g.,

adoption divorce health care juvenile justice minorities refugees special

education

abuse and neglect

artistic expression

foster care income

supports mass media recreation residential Rx

armed conflict education immigration labor politics religion substance

abuseetc.

MONITORING OF RIGHTS IMPLEMENTATION

What it usually is QUESTION: Are we in compliance? DATA: Legal codes  FORM OF THE ANSWER: Binary (checking off the

boxes) and static

What it should be QUESTION: What are we learning?  DATA: Empirical observation  FORM OF THE ANSWER: Open-ended,

developmental, situational, experiential, and changing

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SAMPLE QUESTIONS OF DEVELOPMENT

What concerns are central to children’s experience? E.g., the boundaries of expectable privacy; see Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989, art. 16

What factors are most potent in children’s development as meaningful participants in community life? E.g., that are important in children’s attainment of “a standard of living adequate for the child’s physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development”; see CRC, art. 27, § 1)

What are the means by which children’s rights can be most efficiently and effectively vindicated?E.g., the procedures to be used to fulfill the right to due process must minimally assure that juvenile respondents are “treated in a manner consistent with the promotion of the child’s sense of dignity and worth…”; see CRC, art. 40, § 1)? 12

RELEVANT EMPIRICAL METHODSDevelopmental (usually interview) studies of the situations in which children of various ages and backgrounds experience…

a sense of personhood (personal meaning) When do you feel important (“like somebody”)? When do you feel empty (“like nobody”)? What do you care about? Do you think that you can make a difference?

When and how? a sense of community

When (where) do you feel that you belong? Do you think that others (e.g., teachers) think

that what you feel (do) matters? 13

OTHER RELEVANT METHODSSurvey research (e.g., arts. 12 & 13)Administrative data, but counting is rarely

enoughSingle domains are only marginally relevantServices must be delivered in a respectful

mannerSubjective experience is importantServices must be effectivePromotion of well-being and prevention of

problems should be the foremost policy goalsThe most relevant data sources are often

outside the expertise, interest, and authority of planners in human services

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THE RIGHT TO PERSONALITYEveryone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

…The child should be fully prepared to live an individual life in society….

RIGHT TO AN IDENTITY, including name, nationality, and family relations

RIGHT TO EDUCATION directed to the full development of the human personality….

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RIGHT TO PERSONALITY (CONT.) RIGHT TO PROTECTION OF PERSONAL

BOUNDARIES: No one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy, family, home, or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his honour and reputation.

RIGHT TO PERSONAL SECURITY: All appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child and to remediate harm when the child is so wronged

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THE RIGHT TO A FAMILY ENVIRONMENT

… The child, for the full and harmonious development of his or her personality, should grow up in a family environment, in an atmosphere of happiness, love, and understanding. (CRC, preamble)

The widest possible protection and assistance shall be accorded to the family, which is the natural and fundamental group of society…. (Int’l Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, 1966, art. 10; see also Int’l Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, art. 23)

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THE RIGHT TO A FAMILY ENVIRONMENT (CONT.)

The CRC guarantees numerous entitlements for parents that are the manifestation of children’s rights; e.g.,the right to know and care for the childthe right to respect by the government of the

parents’ rights, responsibilities, and dutiesthe right, absent judicial proceedings to the

contrary, to be with the childthe right to maintain contact across national

boundariesthe right to assistance in caring for the childthe right to material assistance to meet basic

needs18

THE RIGHT TO GROW UP IN A COMMUNITY

Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible. (Universal Declaration, art. 29, § 1)

Basic to the right to a family environmentBasic to identity, especially for childrenVenue for participation and, therefore, for recognition as a person

Fundamental element in dignity 19

THE RIGHT TO GROW UP IN A COMMUNITY (CONT.)

The Universal Declaration established a “right to participate in the cultural life of the community”

The drafters of the CRC also recognized “the importance of the traditions and cultural values of each people for the protection and harmonious development of the child”; hence, The rights and responsibilities of parents may be

extended “by local custom” to “members of the extended family or community”

Children, including those in a linguistic or cultural minority, have a right of access to mass media and cultural materials 20

CONCLUSIONS:TOWARD A RIGHTS-SENSITIVE

CULTURETYPICAL RIGHTS MONITORING

Fragmented, cursory, and minimally empirical

ASSUMPTION: If behavior is legally prescribed, it happens

PURPOSE: To prove that the reporting State party (organization) is not eligible for admission to the Evil Nation (Organization) of the Month Club

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BETTER RIGHTS MONITORINGConventional management information

systems and evaluation researchHence, description of compliance with

(hundreds of) ‘statutes’ in the CRCASSUMPTION: The problem is a lack of

accountability of bureaucrats in formal organizations

PURPOSE: To enhance consistency with existing norms of ‘good [professional] practice’ in each ‘tree’ in the ‘forest’

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BEST RIGHTS MONITORING

Inquiry begins with consideration of the compatibility of policies and practices with ‘constitutional’ norms (the ‘forest’) consistent with children’s development as persons Identity and meaningFamily environmentSense of community

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BEST RIGHTS MONITORING (CONT.)PROCESS: Assess whether policy making

and practice development comport with principles consistent with norms of respect for children as persons

OUTCOMES: Assess whether policies and practices comport with a vision of a society (communities) consistent with such principles

INTEGRATION: Assess whether norms and structures are present to sustain such a vision 24

BEST RIGHTS MONITORING (CONT.)

COMMITMENT: Assess whether there are norms of sensitivity to children’s rights and a collective willingness to learn from experience and to apply such lessons

Final points ‘Typical’ to ‘better’ to ‘best’ is perfectly

correlated with technical and sociopolitical difficulty

‘Best’ is grand but not grandioseProvides the foundation for communities built

on the best aspirations of people of good will life governed by the Golden Rule

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