The Role of Children’s Rights

Abstract

Chapter ten compares the threats to sustainability of social environments identified in the prior chapter with the existential threat of climate change. The author calls for a similar transformation of macrosystemic that shapes out social and political worlds. She proposes adopting ecogenerism, which treats the welfare of future generations as a its paramount vale, as the agent of transformation. To guide in defining children’s essential needs and rights, and to measure progress in creating a wordl fit for children, the author proposes the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) as the most broadly accepted normative framework. The author introduces the rights protected by the CRC, first in child-friendly language and then using the more complex language and interpretive tools of human rights law. The author highlights various innovative CRC principles that can change play a role in transforming the ecology of childhood. They include: viewing the best interest of the child holistically as protecting the full range of children’s rights; bridging the public/private divide by clarifying children’s positive rights to social welfare supports; and integrating the science of child development into the scheme of human rights.