Rights of Children
Rights of Children
COLLEGE OF NURSING
MULLANA (AMBALA)
ASSIGNMENT
ON
RIGHTS OF CHILDREN
INTRODUCTION:
Children's rights are a subset of human rights with particular attention to the rights of
special protection and care afforded to minors. (Not to be confused with Youth rights). The
1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) defines a child as "any human being
below the age of eighteen years, unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is
attained earlier." Children's rights includes their right to association with both parents, human
identity as well as the basic needs for physical protection, food, universal state-paid
education, health care, and criminal laws appropriate for the age and development of the
child, equal protection of the child's civil rights, and freedom from discrimination on the
basis of the child's race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national
origin, religion, disability, colour, ethnicity or other characteristics. Interpretations of
children's rights range from allowing children the capacity for autonomous action to the
enforcement of children being physically, mentally and emotionally free from abuse, though
what constitutes "abuse" is a matter of debate. Other definitions include the rights to care and
nurturing. There are no definitions of other terms used to describe young people such as
"adolescents", "teenagers", or "youth" in international law, but the children's rights movement
is considered distinct from the youth rights movement. The field of children's rights spans the
fields of law, politics, religion, and morality.
The Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989 defines more precisely the term “child”:
a child is any human being below the age of eighteen years, unless under the law applicable
to the child, majority is attained earlier”
The idea, through this definition and all the texts concerning child welfare, is that the child is
a human being with rights and dignity.
What characterizes the child is their youth and vulnerability. Indeed, the child is growing, a
future adult, who has no means to protect themself.
So, the child has to be the object of a particular interest and a specific protection. In this
perspective, texts proclaiming the protection of the child and their rights were adopted.
Children’s rights were recognised after the 1st World war, with the adoption of
the Declaration of Geneva, in 1924. The process of recognition of children’s rights
continued thanks to the UN, with the adoption of the Declaration of the Rights of the
Child in 1959.
The recognition of the child’s interest and their rights became a reality on 20 November 1989
with the adoption of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child which is the first
international legally binding text recognizing all the fundamental rights of the child.
Children’s rights law is defined as the point where the law intersects with a child's life. That
includes juvenile delinquency, due process for children involved in the criminal justice
system, appropriate representation, and effective rehabilitative services; care and protection
for children in state care; ensuring education for all children regardless of their race, gender,
sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion, disability, color, ethnicity, or
other characteristics, and; health care and advocacy
TYPES OF RIGHTS:
Children's rights are defined in numerous ways, including a wide spectrum of civil, cultural,
economic, social and political rights. Rights tend to be of two general types: those advocating
for children as autonomous persons under the law and those placing a claim on society for
protection from harms perpetrated on children because of their dependency. These have been
labeled as the right of empowerment and as the right to protection. One Canadian
organization categorizes children's rights into three categories:
Provision: Children have the right to an adequate standard of living, health care, education
and services, and to play and recreation. These include a balanced diet, a warm bed to sleep
in, and access to schooling.
Protection: Children have the right to protection from abuse, neglect, exploitation and
discrimination. This includes the right to safe places for children to play; constructive child
rearing behaviour, and acknowledgment of the evolving capacities of children.
Participation: Children have the right to participate in communities and have programs and
services for themselves. This includes children's involvement in libraries and community
programs, youth voice activities, and involving children as decision-makers.
In a similar fashion, the Child Rights Information Network, or CRIN for short, categorizes
rights into two groups:
Economic, social and cultural rights, related to the conditions necessary to meet basic
human needs such as food, shelter, education, health care, and gainful employment. Included
are rights to education, adequate housing, food, water, the highest attainable standard of
health, the right to work and rights at work, as well as the cultural rights of minorities and
indigenous peoples.
Environmental, cultural and developmental rights, which are sometimes called "third
generation rights," and including the right to live in safe and healthy environments and that
groups of people have the right to cultural, political, and economic development.
Amnesty International openly advocates four particular children's rights, including the end to
juvenile incarceration without parole, an end to the recruitment of military use of children,
ending the death penalty for people under 21 and raising awareness of human rights in the
classroom. Human Rights Watch, an international advocacy organization, includes child
labor, juvenile justice, orphans and abandoned children, refugees, street children and corporal
punishment.
Scholarly study generally focuses children's rights by identifying individual rights. The
following rights "allow children to grow up healthy and free":
Freedom of speech
Freedom of thought
Freedom from fear
Freedom of choice and the right to make decisions
Ownership over one's body
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is an important agreement by
countries who have promised to protect children’s rights. The Convention on the Rights of
the Child explains who children are, all their rights, and the responsibilities of governments.
All the rights are connected, they are all equally important and they cannot be taken away
from children.
The Children in India face many problems such as are abandonment. They do not get a
chance to step in a school. They are left to fend for themselves on the streets. They suffer
from many forms of violence. They do not have access to even primary healthcare. They are
subjected to cruel and inhumane treatments every day. They are children – innocent, young
and beautiful – who are deprived of their rights.
In the history of human rights, the rights of children are the most ratified. The United Nations
Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) defines Child Rights as the minimum
entitlements and freedoms that should be afforded to every citizen below the age of 18
regardless of race, national origin, colour, gender, language, religion, opinions, origin,
wealth, birth status, disability, or other characteristics.
These rights encompass freedom of children and their civil rights, family environment,
necessary healthcare and welfare, education, leisure and cultural activities and special
protection measures.
Right to Survival:
Right to be born
Right to minimum standards of food, shelter and clothing
Right to live with dignity
Right to health care, to safe drinking water, nutritious food, a clean and safe
environment, and information to help them stay healthy
Right to Protection:
Right to be protected from all sorts of violence
Right to be protected from neglect
Right to be protected from physical and sexual abuse
Right to be protected from dangerous drugs
Right to Participation:
Right to Development:
Right to education
Right to learn
Right to relax and play
Right to all forms of development – emotional, mental and physical
Further, the rights as described in the Convention have been summarised into the following
fundamentals with references to various articles.
4. The Right to a Family Life (Articles 8, 9, 10, 16, 20, 22 and 40):
If not family members, then children have the right to be looked after by caretakers. Children
must live with their parents until it is harmful to them. However, ‘family reunification’, i.e.
permission for family members living in different countries to travel to renew contact
between family members is critical. Under the ward of a caretaker or family, they must be
provided privacy against attacks on their way of life and personal history.
Children who do not have access to a family life, have a right to special care and must be
looked after properly, by people who respect their ethnic group, religion, culture and
language. Refugee children have a right to special protection and help. In the case of
misdemeanours, children have the right to seek legal counsel under a juvenile justice
mechanism, with the fair and speedy resolution of proceedings.
8. The Right to be protected from exploitation (Articles 19, 32, 34, 36 and 39):
As exploitation is usually achieved through violent means, protection from violence is critical
for freeing children from exploitation. This extends to abuse, negligence and violence by
parents, even if it is justified as an instrument of achieving discipline at home. Further,
children cannot be made to work in difficult or dangerous conditions. Children can only
volunteer to work doing safe chores that do not compromise their health, or access to
education or play. Sexual exploitation, another dimension of exploitation, is also prohibited,
as an activity that takes advantage of them. Survivors of neglect, abuse and exploitation must
receive special help to enable recovery and reintegration into society. Children also cannot be
punished cruelly, even if it is under the ambit of the justice system. Death or life sentences, as
well as sentences with adult prisoners, are not permitted.
Child welfare legislation includes such laws and acts through which care, protection, welfare
and rehabilitation of children including those in conflict with law can be ensured. These
legislations derive their strength from various constitutional provisions (like Article 24, 39,
and 45), National policy for children, adopted by government of India in 1974 and United
Nations Declaration on Rights of Children.
The Children's Act of 1960, amended in 1977, provides for care, maintenance, welfare,
training. education and rehabilitation of delinquent children. The categories of children who
come under
Such neglected children can be taken charge of, by the police, probation officer, or
Superintendent of Observation home. Such children should be produced before a juvenile
court within 24 hours. Similarly, a delinquent child who has been found to commit an offence
under the Indian penal code is to be produced before the Juvenile court that is authorized to
try children's cases under the act.
Juvenile Justice Act of 1986 is now replaced by new Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of
Children) Act, 2000. This act imposes on the state primary responsibility of ensuring that all
needs of children are met and that their basic human rights are fully protected. In the act,
"Juvenile or Child' means a person who has not attained the age of 18 years. "Neglected
Juvenile' means a juvenile who
is begging
suffering from terminal or incurable disease and having no one to support or look after
who is being abused or exploited or
destitute
A 'delinquent juvenile' means a juvenile who has found to have committed an offense.
The Act provides for a uniform legal framework for juvenile justice in the country so as
to ensure that no child under any circumstance is put in jail or police lockup.
The child's contact with the police has been reduced to minimum.
It establishes norms and standards for administration of juvenile justice in terms of
investigation, care, treatment and rehabilitation.
The Act provides a system to facilitate the adoption of children.
The Act empowers the state governments to establish and maintain children's homes in
every district for reception of children in need of care and protection during the process of
any inquiry. These homes also provide care, treatment, education, training, development
and rehabilitation to juveniles.
The Child Labor Act is to prohibit the engagement of children in certain employments and to
regulate the conditions of work of children in certain non-hazardous works. This Act defines
certain terms like
1. No child shall be permitted to work in any of the occupations listed in the Annexure A
2. No child shall be permitted to work in any workshop where processes listed in Annexure B
arecarried on. 3. No child shall work for more than 3 hours followed by an interval of 1 hour
rest and the duration of such work should not be more than 6 hours.
5. Every child employed in an establishment shall be allowed one holiday per week.
6. The owner of establishment should notify to the police regarding joining of any child,
within 30days of his joining.
7. It is the responsibility of the government to make rules to provide healthy and safe
environmentfor the child on work.
8. Whoever employs any child or permits any child to engage in occupations listed in
Annexure A shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than
three months but may extend to 1 year or fine not less than ten thousand rupees extending to
twenty thousand rupees or with both imprisonment and fine.
Annexure A Annexure B
List of Occupations not allowed for children List of Processes prohibited for children
Any occupation Including Processes like:
Transport of passengers, goods or mails by railway Bidi making
Cinder picking, clearing of ash pit in railway Carpet weaving
premises
Catering unit at railway station Cement manufacture
Work related to construction of railway station or Cloth printing and dying
work done close to railway lines
Work related to selling of crackers and fireworks, Making matches and fireworks
slaughter houses
Mica cutting
Shellac manufacture
Soap manufacture
Tanning
Wool cleaning
Building and construction
Slate pencils making
Manufacture of agate products
Processes using heavy metals
Hazardous processes Printing
Cashew descanting and processing
Soldering of electronics
This act was made to restrain child marriages. It extends to the whole of India except Jammu
and
Kashmir.
"Child marriage" is a marriage of a girl or boy not yet reached the minimum age of marriage
stipulated in
the law of the country in which the girl or boy resides. "Child" means a person, who if male,
has not completed 21 years of age and if female, has not completed18 years of age.
Any male above 18 years and below 21 years who contracts a child marriage shall be
punishablewith simple imprisonment of up to 15 days, or with fine of up to one thousand
rupees, or with both.
Any male adult, above 21 years of age who marries a child shall be punishable with
simple imprisonment of up to 3 months and shall also be liable to fine.
Where a minor is involved in marriage, any person having the charge of minor (like
parents or guardian) shall be punishable with simple imprisonment extending up to three
months and shall also be liable to fine.
Education for All Handicapped Children Act was passed in 1975 and it has been revised and
modifiedseveral times. This law was recently amended by Individuals with Disabilities
Education Improvement Act, 2005. Children with hearing loss or auditory process disorder
may qualify for services under this Act. This Act provides for "Mainstreaming' of education,
practice of teaching handicapped children in regular classrooms with non-handicapped
children to the fullest extent possible. Such children may have orthopedic, intellectual,
emotional or visual difficulties or handicaps associated with hearing or learning. The practice
is also called Inclusion. Researches have stated that handicapped students learn better regular,
than in special classes. The Federal Education for All Handicapped Children Act (1975)
states that all handicapped children are entitled to a "free and appropriate" education in the
"least restrictive environment".
The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act was originally enacted in Public law 93-247.
The law was completely rewritten in the Child Abuse Prevention, Adoption and Family
Services Act of 1988. It was most recently amended in 2003. The Act is aimed at preventing
sexual abuse of children by providing definitions, preventive mechanisms, victim protection,
incident reporting and registration mechanisms, Investigative protocol, court procedures to
serve best interest of children and for their rehabilitation and punishment of perpetrators of
sexual crimes against children through various Institutions establishedunder this act.
"Child" means a person who has not completed his eighteenth year of age.
"Child Abuse and neglect" means any act or failure to act on the part of a parent or
caretaker which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse or
exploitation or an actor failure to act which presents risk of serious harm.
"Sexual abuse" means employment, use, persuasion, inducement, enticement or coercion
of any child to engage in or assist any other person to engage in any sexually explicit
conduct. It also Includes rape, molestation, prostitution or other forms of sexual
exploitation of children.
The Act provides assistance to states, to develop child abuse and neglect identification
and prevention programmes.
It authorizes government research into child abuse prevention and treatment.
Created the National centre on child abuse and neglect (NCCAN) within thedepartment
ofHealth, education and welfare.
Established Basic State Grants for training personnel and to support programmes aimed at
preventing and treating child maltreatment.
An act to replace the vocational rehabilitation act, to extend and revise the authorization of
grants to states for vocational rehabilitation services, with special emphasis on services to
those with the most severe handicaps, to expand special federal responsibilities and research
and training programs with respect to handicapped individuals, to establish special
responsibilities in the secretary of health, education, and welfare for coordination of all
programs with respect to handicapped individuals within the department of health, education,
and welfare, and for other purposes.
Parental kidnapping is a phrase used to describe when a non-custodial parent refuses to return
a child after a legal visit has ended. It may also apply to a scenario in which the custodial
parent refuses to allow the non-custodial parent to see their children.
Runaway Youth Act - Authorizes the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare to make
grants to establish local institutions to deal primarily with youth runaways outside the
traditional law enforcement, juvenile justice system. Requires that grants be made on the
basis of the number of runaways in the community and the present availability of services for
runaways. States that priority be given to private organizations who have had experience
dealing with runaways.
The Social Security Act also established an unemployment insurance program administered
by the states and the Aid to Dependent Children program, which provided aid to families
headed by single mothers.
ROLE OF NURSE:
Even as these nurses play their roles and responsibilities, they must consider cultural
needs, rights, and expectation of the children, infants, young people, and families they
come
across within an ethical and legal framework.
Cultures of parents do vary, and taking an initiative to understand their beliefs and values
is important as it allows the nurse to align the services to suit the such needs (Egerton,
2012).
The rights and expectations of the child or family members must as well be respected
when rendering services. Law must also be adhered accordingly.
The right to informed consent and end to life protocols must be respected when providing
healthcare to the children. Ethics plays a key role in the nursing profession.
Paediatric and child health nurses must respect and follow the codes of ethics in their
service delivery.
They must be honest, have integrity, be respectful, and endeavour to render services with
diligence.
In conclusion, paediatric and child health nurses have a wide array of responsibilities and
roles.
In addition to promoting health among children, they also collaborate with parents and
families to ensure that quality healthcare is rendered. It is therefore, prudent for the nurses
to appreciate that situations keep on changing in their practice in terms of technological
advancement, and they must always be on the look out to keep abreast with such changes.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Textbook:
Sharma Rimple. Textbook of Pediatric Nursing. 7th ed. Wolter Publishers: 8-30.
Internet Source: