Child advocacy
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Child advocacy refers to a range of individuals, professionals and advocacy organizations who promote the optimal development of children. An individual or organization engaging in advocacy typically seeks to protect children's rights which may be abridged or abused in a number of areas.
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[edit] Rights
Rights can be divided into two categories: negative (rights to be free from) and positive (rights to). Children's negative rights are violated when some dangerous or harmful action is taken directly against them, such as:
- Child abuse
- Child sexual abuse
- Child pornography
- Child prostitution
- Child labor
- Spanking by a teacher
[edit] What child advocates do
One type of children's advocate typically represents or gives voice to an individual or group whose concerns and interests are not being heard. A child advocate will try to prevent children from being harmed and may try to obtain justice for those who have already been injured in some way. A child advocate may also seek to ensure that children have access to positive influences or services which will benefit their lives such as education, childcare and proper parenting. Malnutrition is another form of harm-there are many children who go to bed without eating and it is looked over by child welfare or the police.
Another form of child advocacy happens at the policy level and aims at changing the policies of governments or even transnational policies. These advocates do lobbying, policy research, file lawsuits and engage in other types of policy change techniques [1]. Many use Internet based techniques to influence decision makers [2] .
[edit] Where child advocates can be found
Child advocates exist in school, community, and home environments, and work on an individual, group or governmental level(s) to protect and nurture children. In most circumstances, mothers, fathers, family and teachers all advocate on behalf of children, although it is well recognized that we all have the ability and responsibility to advocate on behalf of children. Eight Canadian provinces. including Ontario, have an official Child Advocate whose job it is to protect the interests and welfare of all the children in the province. Within the criminal justice system, child advocates are concerned with the developmental needs of children and young people, and can play an important role in ensuring due process rights for young people in conflict with the law. They can help provide a voice for children and young people, ensure just and humane conditions of custody, and guard the privacy rights surrounding record provisions. They can also work to ensure that the special legal protections assigned to young people are provided with dignity and fairness.
[edit] Child advocacy centers
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Child Advocacy Centers are neutral, safe locations where multidisciplinary teams investigate disclosures of child sexual or severe physical abuse. These multidisciplinary teams are made up of law enforcement officers, child protective service personnel, prosecutors, and advocates. Children who have disclosed abuse are interviewed by a forensic interviewer at such centers. Referrals for medical or mental health treatment are also made for the child and their family members.
The multidisciplinary approach to child abuse investigations is designed with the intention of reducing the secondary trauma associated with the disclosure and subsequent investigation of abuse.
Child Advocacy Centers are accredited by the National Children's Alliance.
Child Advocacy organizations at the policy level exist at state and national levels and as transnational NGOs. The organizations that they work in vary from smaller organizations at the local level to multinational voluntary organizations concerned about international child rights.
[edit] The United Nations
On the international stage, the United Nations has long advocated on behalf of children through UNICEF, whose position on children was formulated and publicly formalized in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The convention sets out a summary of collective ideals and a covenant of commitments to all children on the planet.
[edit] Philosophy
One thing that all child advocates have in common is healthy respect for young children. There is also recognition that in most countries, children are not seen as having the full citizenship status which confers certain rights and responsibilities as adults.
[edit] Children advocating for themselves
- Further information: Youth voice
- Further information: Youth empowerment
Free the Children is a ‘unique international youth organization that empowers young people through representation, leadership and action’. The organization was founded in 1995 by Craig Kielburger, then a 12 year old living in Thornhill, Ontario, who had been moved to travel throughout South Asia and campaign against child labour by the story of Iqbal Masih, published in a local paper. Iqbal was a child labour activist in Pakistan who, as a debt-enslaved loom-worker in the carpet industry, became an activist against coerced child labour. Iqbal was subsequently murdered when 12 years old, allegedly by angry members of the carpet industry. Since 1995, Free the Children has become the largest network of children working on behalf of children in the world, involving over 100,000 youth in more than 35 countries. Among the advocacy issue campaigns initiated by FTC: child labour, child poverty, war affected children, education, and children's rights. The movement has directed unprecedented international attention to issues of child labour and child rights, and has also brought about tangible accomplishments. For instance, over the past three years, FTC has helped build about 300 schools in developing countries under the premise that education can provide poor children with a better life, and has also assisted in funding clinics, water projects, and other aid programs around the world.
The Children's Movement advocates for young children under the belief that all children, even very young ones, need to have a voice and should be able to participate in social and political issues that affect them. Some childhood theorists argue that childhood is less about age and more accurately conceived of as a condition of powerlessness. The children's movement is about contesting the powerlessness of childhood and was born out of frustrations with the exclusion of children's voices and participation from campaigns for social justice, particularly glaring in organizations and policy arenas that claim to speak for and on behalf of children. Similar to other oppressed or marginalized groups that have rejected the paternalistic notion that others - wiser, more experienced and better positioned - should represent them, the children's movement insists that children are best able to understand matters affecting children, and the best agents to voice these interests. Regional chapters exist worldwide in areas such as South Africa and Columbia.
Ectopia.org is a website that details the campaign of a group of Cambodian girls coerced into false accusations against innocent men by a 'child advocacy' group. Apparently in the interest of spurring donations, the girls were "made to lie, forced to suffer shameful virginity testing, branded as 'victims of rape', which named and shamed them and damaged or sabotaged their marriage prospects", and "were literally defiled by an organization masquerading as their protector." The girls are now attempting to undo the damage these 'child advocates' caused.
Students United for Child Advocacy (SUCA)was founded in 2002 by two college students: Yolanda M. Norton and Andrew J. Shin at Syracuse University in Syracuse, NY. Their mission is to "promote student activism through child advocacy". SUCA is considered the first strictly student-run child advocacy group in the United States. Since its inception, SUCA has expanded to a national initative recruiting college students at colleges across the nation to start their own SUCA groups on their campuses which emphasize both serving local communities as well as informing national policy discussions concerning children. SUCA's headquarters is currently registered as a not-for-profit organization in the State of Maryland.
[edit] See also
- Youth activism
- List of articles related to youth rights
- Student activism
- Henry Bergh
- The Foster Care Council of Canada
[edit] External links
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The external links in this article may not follow Wikipedia's content policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links. |
- "Educate a Woman, You Educate a Nation" - South Africa Aims to Improve its Education for Girls WNN - Women News Network. August 28, 2007. Lys Anzia
- National Child Protection Reform
- Child Advocacy 360
- [1] The MY HERO Project features a section on the UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
- Child advocacy documents - Natural Child Project
- Child advocacy articles - Natural Child Project
- Supporting Children's Rights through Education, the Arts and Media
- World Bank Early Child Development
- Pueblito
- Child Advocate Network of America
- Childcare Advocacy Canada
- Childcare Resource and Research Unit - UofT
- Foster Care Council of Canada
- Missing Children
- National Youth Rights Association (U.S.)
- Casa Alianza (street children in Central America)
- Representing Children in Families conference at UNLV
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