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10 - Child Rights

Why They Matter and How to Realize Them

from Part II - The Intersection of Psychology and Human Rights

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 October 2020

By
Michael G. Wessells  and
Kathleen Kostelny
Edited by
Neal S. Rubin  and
Roseanne L. Flores
Neal S. Rubin
Affiliation:
Adler University
Roseanne L. Flores
Affiliation:
Hunter College, City University of New York
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Summary

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child guarantees comprehensive rights to all children (people under 18 years of age). These entitlements, which states cannot take away, are essential for children’s protection, healthy development, participation, and agency, and they also provide a moral compass for working with children. Because child rights often exist more on paper than in reality, it is important to develop strategies for realizing children’s rights. With an emphasis on settings of armed conflict, useful strategies include learning from children’s lived experiences, enabling children’s agency and decision-making power, education about child rights in a way that fits the local context, social mobilization and empowerment, social norms changing harmful practices, international influencing and enforcement of international law, and reporting of violations and whistleblowing, among others. Child rights and psychology have interrelated agendas, since both seek to promote human well-being, including children’s well-being. The chapter concludes that psychologists will achieve their mission of enabling human well-being only if they make child rights central in their own work.

Keywords

child rightschild protectionagencychild partipationConvention on the Rights of the Childwhistleblowingsocial norms changeeducationempowerment
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Psychology and Human Rights , pp. 150 - 163
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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