Children's rights as good governance
We can't have rights without policy coherence
Welcome to the second instalment of my occasional musings on Canadian current affairs through a children’s right lens. This project is still taking shape, but if you like what you’re reading, feel free to pass it along. Because children’s rights are worth talking about.
Today while reading Paul Wells’ piece on the Liberal Party of Canada’s election platform, I couldn’t help but pause on the word “coherence”. Wells argues that slicing and dicing policy proposals to cater to myriad individual interests makes for ineffective government in practice. Coherence, in contrast, means thinking clearly.
I had just been talking with my thesis supervisor about coherence as an emerging theme in the reading I’ve been doing ahead of my comprehensive exams. Coherence is key to realizing children’s rights. Policy coherence is an obligation under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (child-friendly PDF). The Convention’s various guarantees are to be considered holistically—the realization of one right helps realize other rights, just as the violation of one right results in further rights violations. The Convention sets out a coherent system of rights, not a mere checklist.
This coherent system of rights is based on the guiding principles of non-discrimination, best interests of the child, survival and development, and participation (respectively, Convention articles 2, 3, 6, and 12). These guiding principles provide the foundation for all the other rights in the Convention.
For example, realizing the right to education as set out in articles 28 and 29 means: ensuring schools treat all children with respect regardless of their race, gender, religion, socioeconomic status, or other status; ensuring that children are given the space to explore and learn about the world around them, in a safe environment, alongside trusted adults; and, ensuring that children have a say in decisions about all aspects of their education. Putting these pieces together, schools and school systems that embody children’s rights provide education that in the best interests of the child.
The Convention’s guiding principles, while formulated with children in mind, reflect rights people have come to expect from society more broadly. Non-discrimination applies to all people, not just children, and is a core principle of human rights law. The child’s right to survival and development echoes the right to life, liberty and security of the person under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The idea that best interests can only be assessed with the participation of the affected person is a reflection of ideals of democratic deliberation and procedural fairness. The other rights set out in the Convention—identity, expression, information, culture, play, health, etc.—similarly reflect societal values. As a coherent system, children’s rights offer a framework for policymakers to make rights real for everyone.
Coherent policy is more likely to result in clearly thought out and principled governance and decision-making. A lack of coherent and principled governance and decision-making, on the other hand, can over time lead to disastrous consequences.
Where some non-linked thoughts came from: Continuity—of theory and practice, thought and experience, reflection and action, knowing and doing—is explored by Dewey, Korczak, Freire, Howe & Covell, and Alderson (PDF), among others.
Some children’s rights advocacy resources just in time for the election:
If there are any other links you’d like to see added, leave a comment. I might create a separate post as more resources cross my screens.
I am finding these articles incredibly interesting! Thank you for sharing.