The legal construction of the child in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
Date
2014
Authors
Barnes, Ashleigh Dell
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While the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) has been extensively analysed since its inception and the category 'child' has been critiqued for even longer, it seems the critiques made about the category 'child' continue to have limited purchase regarding the CRC's construction of the category 'child'. This project was inspired by the seemingly dominant perception that there exists something fundamental to the category 'child', a view held even by those who dismiss the same perspective regarding the category 'woman' for example. Put another way, the legs upon which the CRC's category 'child' stands have been dismantled for all other human categories (capacity as a precursor for rights; the existence of 'essential' and 'natural' characteristics shared by all persons who make up an identity category). This thesis aims to understand how these 'legs' nonetheless continue to prop up the category 'child'. This thesis critiques the CRC's articulation of the category 'child', the taken for granted/self-evident assumption that children are fundamentally different from adults, and that this 'difference' justifies their differential and submissive positioning in relation to adults under the banner of children's rights. It seeks to examine the vision of the 'child' articulated in the CRC by employing a postmodern deconstructionist analysis, which draws heavily on Michel Foucault and Judith Butler. This thesis argues that the CRC's vision of the child as 'developing' and thus in need of 'care' enables the regulation and effective control of childhood. As such, the CRC does not describe or provide for the 'true' childhood. Rather, the CRC prescribes vulnerability and dependency as the markers of childhood.
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