Children's Rights
Issues For The Future
Globalization will bring about powerful new linkages among people and nations through law, technology, the media, and the marketplace. An important question is how these new linkages will affect the lives of families and children across the world. The last decade of the twentieth century witnessed an unprecedented increase in the level of international cooperation around the issue of children's rights. The status of children and their social, intellectual, and physical welfare came to be a topic of great worldwide concern, and calls were raised for the creation of clear universal guidelines to ensure that children's rights were protected around the globe. The challenge is how to draft international documents that create binding standards for children but are sufficiently sensitive to variations in local cultural values and customs. Accommodating cultural diversity within broad global frameworks will continue to challenge decision makers as they struggle to formulate policies that enhance the dignity of children worldwide.
See also: ADOPTION; CHILD ABUSE: PHYSICAL ABUSE AND NEGLECT; CHILD ABUSE: PSYCHOLOGICAL MALTREATMENT; CHILD ABUSE: SEXUAL ABUSE; CHILD CUSTODY; CHILDHOOD; FAMILY LAW; FAMILY POLICY; ORPHANS; SPANKING
Bibliography
Children's Legal Rights. (1993). CQ Researcher (April 23):337–360.
International Save the Children's Alliance. (1999). "Children's Rights: Reality or Rhetoric." London: Author.
Levesque, R. J. (1996). "International Children's Rights: Can They Make a Difference in American Family Policy?" American Psychologist 51:1251–1256.
Melton, G. B. (1996). "The Child's Right to a Family Environment: Why Children's Rights and Family Values are Compatible." American Psychologist 51:1234–1238.
Miller, J. G. (1994). "Cultural Diversity in the Morality of Caring: Individually Oriented versus Duty-Based Moral Codes." Cross-Cultural Research 28:3–39.
Murphy-Berman, V.; Levesque, H.; and Berman, J. (1996). "U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child: A Cross-Cultural View." American Psychologist 51:1257–1261.
Rodham, H. (1973). "Children under the Law." Harvard Educational Review 43:487–514.
Special Symposium Issue on the Rights of Children. (1993). Family Law Quarterly 27.
UNICEF. (2000). The State of the World's Children. New York: Author.
Woodhouse, B. B. (1993). "Hatching the Egg: A Child-Centered Perspective on Parents' Rights." Cardozo Law Review 14:1747–1865.
Wrightsman, L.; Nietzel, M.; and Fortune, W. (1994). Psychology and the Legal System. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole.
Cases
Gault. In re 387 U.S. 1 (1967).
Meyer v. Nebraska 262 U.S. 390 (1923).
VIRGINIA MURPHY-BERMAN HOWARD A. DAVIDSON
Additional topics
Marriage and Family EncyclopediaPregnancy & ParenthoodChildren's Rights - Historical Roots Of The Children's Rights Movement, Universal Standards On The Rights Of Children