15 minute read
The overlooked
IN 1989,
under the ‘United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN CRC)’ virtually every country in the world agreed that children have rights to a clean environment to live in, clean air to breathe, water to drink and food to eat - irrespective of their nationality and citizenship.2
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Children were also assured rights to learn, relax and play.
IN 2021,
UNICEF released a report entitled ‘The Climate Change Crisis is a Child Rights Crisis’
“It is creating a water crisis, a health crisis, an education crisis, a protection crisis and a participation crisis. It is threatening children’s very survival. In all these ways, it is infringing on children’s rights – as outlined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.” 3
CHRONOLOGICAL TIMELINE ESTABLISHING THE UN CRC
1919 /
LONDON
Eglantyne Jebb launches the 'Save the Children Fund' at the Royal Albert Hall to help raise money for German and Austrian children suffering from the aftermath of World War One and the Allied blockade.
FIGURE 1
The Royal Albert Hall hosting the launch of Save the Children on 19 May 1919
1920 /
GENEVA
After the success of Jebb’s initial fund-raiser, she and her sister, Dorothy, set up the 'International Save the Children Union' to help distressed children on an international scale.
1923 /
GENEVA
Eglantyne Jebb drafts and publishes the first ever written document promoting child rights, known as the 'Declaration of the Rights of the Child' through her organisation. The document addresses the need to put children first above all else through its five terms, which read;
01 The child must be given the means requisite for its normal development, both materially and spiritually.
02 The child that is hungry must be fed, the child that is sick must be nursed, the child that is backward must be helped, the delinquent child must be reclaimed, and the orphan and the waif must be sheltered and succoured.
03 The child must be the first to receive relief in times of distress.
04 The child must be put in a position to earn a livelihood, and must be protected against every form of exploitation.
05 The child must be brought up in the consciousness that its talents must be devoted to the service of its fellow men.
1924 /
GENEVA
The League of Nations General Assembly ratifies the 'Declaration of the Rights of the Child' and titles it as the 'Geneva Declaration'.
1959 /
NEW YORK
The United Nations General Assembly officially ratifies the Declaration of the Rights of the Child. Up till this point in time however, the term 'child' was loosely used to describe an individual who may benefit from having his rights protected under this treaty. In conjunction with the 30th anniversary of the 'Declaration of the Rights of the Child', the United Nations General Assembly ratifies the Convention on the Rights of the Child and defines a child as any individual below the age of 18.
The UN CRC becomes the most widely ratified treaty in the world with 194 countries as 'state parties'.
First ever World Summit for Children held at the UN headquarters in New York.
FIGURE 2
1989 /
NEW YORK
1990 /
NEW YORK
FIGURE 3 World Summit for Children, UN Headquarters, New York City
On the 30th of September in 1990, the United Nations held its first ever world summit in the name of children at its headquarters in New York. This was a pivotal moment in history in which it was agreed upon by over 150 state and country leaders that all children were assured a basic set of rights and they were to be listened to and valued when any decision was to be made. 4
This summit was exclusive to invited state leaders, who demographically, represent a very particular group of adults in a position of authority and power. Children therefore, who were the prime focus of the conversation were nowhere to be seen or heard. In terms of the contents of the UN CRC itself, during discussions, several of the delegates from the Global South expressed dissatisfaction that the drafting group was ‘predominantly Western in its orientation’, and argued that greater account should have been taken ‘of the cultural diversity and economic realities of developing countries’.5
The crucial issue about some of these more strident efforts to enforce the Convention is that the focus is on whether countries are complying or meeting their obligations rather than whether or not children are better off as a result of intervention.
FIGURE 4
Rights that every child is entitled to according to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989
NETWORK DIAGRAM ANALYSIS OF UN CRC RIGHTS
INJUSTICE
In 2021, UNICEF introduced a new scale of measure known as ‘The Children’s Climate Risk Index (CCRI)’ 6 in its report entitled ‘The Climate Change Crisis is a Child Rights Crisis’. This index ranks countries based on how vulnerable children are to environmental stresses and extreme weather conditions, such as heatwaves, cyclones, air pollution, flooding and water scarcity. The findings from this report show that almost every child on earth is exposed to at least one of these climate and environmental hazards.7 According to the CCRI, a record-breaking 850 million children, which is approximately one-third of all children on earth, are exposed to four or more of these stresses on an increasingly frequent scale – proving to create incredibly challenging environments for children to live, play and grow up in as intended.8
Based on this report, children in low and middle-income countries, such as the Central African Republic, Chad, Nigeria and Guinea, will continue to bear the heaviest and earliest burdens of these dangerous climate crisis impacts.9 The climate change crisis therefore continues to expose the ways in which we choose to disregard and discredit the needs and the voices of the people who have contributed the least to the problem at hand. Severity key
Extremely high
High
Medium – High
Low – Medium
Low
FIGURE 5 The Children’s Climate Risk Index (CCRI) August 2021
EXCERPTS FROM UNICEF'S REPORT 'THE CLIMATE CHANGE CRISIS IS A CHILD RIGHTS CRISIS'
MALAYSIA
FIGURE 6 Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013 “Every Malaysian child deserves equal access to an education that will enable that child to achieve his or her potential. The Ministry thus aspires to ensure universal access and full enrolment of all children from preschool through to upper secondary school level by 2020.” 10
"113 schools put out of action by floods" 11 "All my kids’ school items destroyed in Johor floods" 12
FIGURE 7 Floods in Peninsular Malaysia 2021
MADAGASCAR
Concluding Observations to Madagascar 2012
Lack of official documentation at birth posing identity risks 2021
FIGURE 8
"The Committee on the Rights of the Child, cited birth registration as a significant challenge and expressed concerns at the low levels of birth registration. However, the Committee acknowledged that progress was made through the National Programme for Rehabilitating Birth Registration." 13
"The dropout rate increases when children enter an exam class because this document is required for official exams." 14
FIGURE 9
PARTY POLITICS
As no other economic body sees a monetary gain in listening to the needs of children, they are often overlooked and forgotten in the majority of decision making processes.
Protagonist: Children Antagonist: Lawmakers Mentor: Education Side kick: Social media Merchant: None Parents resort to becoming the intermediary individual responsible for providing for and shaping almost every aspect of a minor's life, due to the way in which our political and economic systems work. The prime example being late night television advertisements for new toys during Christmas time, which are targeted at adults who have nearly all the purchasing power to influence the trends of the gift giving season.
Since I was 10 , I have always strived to lift up my voice just to get even a single moment’s attention from a decision-maker. We are here, we are smart, and we have the solutions. I am young but climate change has put more on my plate; more is expected out of me. I imagine a world where every child is included in crucial decision-making
Nkosilathi Nyathi, 18, Zimbabwe
UNICEF, The Climate Crisis is a Child Rights Crisis: Introducing the Children’s Climate Risk Index (New York: United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 2021) p. 45.
and we have the I am young but climate change has more is expected out I imagine a world where every child is included in crucial decision-making.
THE GLOBAL DILEMMA
Based on a global poll conducted by the UN, almost 48 per cent of young people do not believe that decision-makers in their city or community are willing to listen to any of their opinions. 15
Restrictions that equate age with experience allow for almost no exceptions when it comes to youth and child involvement in politics and policy making, irrespective of their upbringing. Under these laws, a child brought up in a safe, protected environment in Washington is given the same amount of agency as a child from Chad who is on the front lines of fighting to prevent deforestation and his indigenous land rights from being exploited.
FIGURE 10 Mapped voting age restrictions across the world
"A voting age is a minimum age established by law that a person must attain before they become eligible to vote in a public election." 16
The only known maximum voting age is in the Holy See, where the franchise for electing a new Pope in the Papal Conclave is restricted to Cardinals under the age of 80.
Voting age
21 20 19 18 17 16
FIGURE 11 Mapped ages of majority across the world
"The age of majority is the threshold of adulthood as recognized or declared in law. It is the moment when minors cease to be considered such and assume legal control over their persons, actions, and decisions, thus terminating the control and legal responsibilities of their parents or guardian over them." 17
Ages of majority
21 20 19 18 17 16
A RIGGED SYSTEM
It is estimated that between 2015 to 2050, the overall world population of people over 60 will double from 12% to 22% 18
In 2020, the number of people above 60 has already outnumbered those below the age of 5 19
As David Runciman explains in his podcast ‘Talking Politics’20, the world and the way in which our systems work are significantly geared to favour the older generation. He explains how our democratic system is so rigged that we would need to lower the voting age to 6 years of age to even allow for a fair chance for the younger generation to have their opinions and votes be heard as the majority21. Given that there is no upper limit to the voting age globally, our political systems are therefore heavily age biased, discounting the fact that some children have experienced and seen far worse than any of us have in our lives.
Since children do not have the same legal and political standing as adults do in our legislative system, they often do not have a platform to have their voices heard. Our system therefore hugely contradicts what was agreed upon 30 years ago by the UN, where every child was assured their right to have their opinions heard on issues that particularly affect them, like climate change, the design of their cities and the candidates in charge of making decisions about their future.
FIGURE 12 Flood victims of Malaysia 2015 - 2022
Many presume to know much about children because they have all been children but we have been prepped to enter a world built for adults – ‘you’ll understand when you get older’ ‘not now, you’re too young’
The central premise here is that ‘child’ is not a natural or universal category, predetermined by biology, nor is it something with a fixed meaning. On the contrary, childhood is historically, culturally and socially variable. It is a truism that ‘child’ and childhood are best understood within a cultural context and to attempt to universalise the concept child is a misrepresentation of the world of children. 22
A CULTURAL DISPARITY
In most modern societies, decisions are always made on behalf of children as they are deemed to be too ‘immature’ and playful to be given a seat at any decision-making table. This accepted exclusion of children from politics is merely a product of cultural assumption about the disparity between adulthood and childhood.
As a case study, several marginalised communities of collective life that choose to define the metrics of maturity and decision making in a completely different manner when compared to those in the West have been studied.
FIGURE 13 Children from the Beng tribe of the Ivory Coast
The Beng tribe23 from the Ivory Coast have very particular beliefs about how children are perceived and thought of from the moment they are born.
The people of the Beng tribe believe in a spirit world where children live before they are born and where they are known to know all human languages and understand all cultures.
'Life in this spirit world is said to be very pleasant and the children are often very reluctant to leave it for an earthly family.' 24
When they are born, they are said to remain in contact with this other world for several years, and may decide to return there if they are not properly looked after. 'So parents treat young children with great care so that they’re not tempted to return, and also with some reverence, because they’re in contact with the spirit world in a way in which adults never can be.' 25
The Beng tribe therefore believes that the kids are on a spiritually and hierarchical higher level compared to adults. Adults therefore heavily respect and listen to what their kids need whilst trying their absolute best to provide them with the most basic of rights because they believe that the children can choose to leave back to the spiritual world if they are not valued by their family members.
FIGURE 14 Children from the Igbo tribe of Nigeria
The Igbo tribe from Nigeria believe that 'from the age of about three years, the Ibo child is reckoned as sufficiently advanced to be left more or less to its own devices. It begins to consort freely with children of its own age or company (otu) and to take its share in work and play.' 26
The Igbo tribe therefore formally acknowledges that as soon as a child can walk, talk and eat on its own, they are culturally recognised as an individual that is fully capable of contributing to their community and society in any way they deem possible. They are left to independently define their working and social boundaries with little to no interference from the older generation.
FIGURE 15 Children from the Semai tribe of Peninsular Malaysia
The Semai indigenous tribe from Peninsular Malaysia identifies children as individual beings from the moment they are born. This tribe believes that children learn about their environment through their individual experiences of it. The children are therefore left to explore and experiment on their own as a form of growing up, with little to no guidance from the older generation.
“Semai emphatically deny that they teach their children. A man might say, “We don’t worry about our children. We don’t mess with them. They grow up here in the jungle like animals. We look after ourselves, they look after themselves.” 27
FIGURE 16 Children from the San tribe of Southern Africa
The San, who are a hunter-gatherer tribe in Southern Africa believes that the relationship between children and adults is easygoing and unselfconscious.
The organization of work, leisure, and living space is such that there is no reason for confining children or excluding them from certain activities.
The adults of the San do not believe that there should be a distinction between the responsibilities of an adult and a child. Children are therefore encouraged to wander around and take part in everyday activities carried out by the tribe, such as hunting, gathering and cooking. "Everyone lives on the flat surface of the ground; hence there is no need to protect children from falls or from becoming entrapped behind doors. With the exception of spears and poisoned arrows, adult tools do not constitute a hazard to children. Those weapons are simply kept hanging in trees or wedged on top of a hut, safely out of reach. When the men are making spear and arrow points, they do not attempt to exclude children … from the area" 28 (Draper 1976: 205-6).
