Children’s Rights and their Relation to the Different Types of Families

David CalderónMEXICO

Mexico, 27-29 October, 2004

Overview

• Conceiving rights as a form of action

• Reflections on Human Rights

• Children and adolescents within the context of their family configurations

• The role of public policies as strategies for enforcing the integral exercise of rights

Rights

• Definition of a fully-realized human being• Individual and natural duties to reach the fullest

and richest “self-being” that projects a consistent solidarity on other human beings

• The a priori universal and general condition of such duties, independently from the specific features of their holders

• Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989

The law of the weakest

• The rights of children and adolescents cannot –and should not– be subject to the asymmetry of purchasing power, the whims of voting, the ideology of governments, or the circumstantial agendas of NGOs

• Opposed to a non critical euphoria and a somber skepticism

• Harmonization among qualities and titles, indivisibility of Human Rights

• Guarantee of solidarity: All the rights for all people

Rights and family contexts

• The rights of children and adolescents are realized under true living conditions

• Data on well being and welfare: morbidity and mortality, poverty, mistreatment events, development, school failure

• Data on vulnerability: dependency on assistance, risk behavior

• Data on inclusion: employment level, academic development, creation of new families, citizen participation

• Indicators: theoretical formulae, symptoms

Configurations

• Children and adolescents are family

• By themselves, different configurations suggest different strategies, although harmoniously coordinated

• The “shared residence” criterion is too restricted; irrelevance of the “extended” or “nuclear” distinction

Relevant distinctions

• Vulnerability accrued by absence: mono parental situation

• A commitment either non assumed in family creation or revoked in further stages

• Intersection of such factors as the overall income level, siblings and their degree of consanguinity, migration or location variety, belonging to an ethnic minority, educational differences

• Focusing strategies rather than establishing taxonomies

Public policies

• Suitable strategies for the respect and promotion of rights

• Not a mere set of plans and programs

• Not the exclusive task of the government

• Not a welfare package for individuals

What it truly is

• The actual implementation of the social pact expressed through the set of principles, criteria, and lines of action allowing for government plans and programs to be relevant, consistent, and assessable. The set of institutional strategies ensuring the state leadership in the solution of national problems, while promoting the joint responsibility of civil society, demanding a cross-sectional relation among the various government powers and hierarchies, and setting forth criteria for evaluation, accountability, and ongoing improvement in the performance of institutions and officials.  

Characteristics

• Coordinated: Government, Civil Society and the families themselves

• Global: Covering the various aspects of the problem

• Cross-sectional: Involving the coordination among all powers and proceedings

• Integral: Addressing children and adolescents inside their families and communities

A few clues• Employment strategies, investment in upbringing practices, network

strengthening• Reduction of disintegration factors, joint responsibility of non

residents• Quality education (especially pre-school) and reflective community

activities• Universal access to utilities, without any complex segmentation• Ensured harmonization between working and family life• Strong investment on professionalization, counsel, and conciliation• Tax incentives and reductions with a moderate income transfer• Explicit reinforcement and extension of community participation

Public policy and family role

• Recognition: expert knowledge and respectful assessment

• Support: help required to minimize risks, remove obstacles, and overcome disadvantages impeding or hindering tasks that are the natural competence of families

• Protection: whenever family configuration or condition already lost its favorable potential

• Promotion: encouragement, incentive, and boost of right exercise