Page 109 - Šolsko polje, XXXI, 2020, 3-4: Convention on the Rights of the Child: Educational Opportunities and Social Justice, eds. Zdenko Kodelja and Urška Štremfel
P. 109
Instead of a Conclusion:
Some Other Problems with Children’s Rights
Zdenko Kodelja, Educational Research Institute, Slovenia
As evident in academic discussions, including in this themat-
ic issue, children’s rights are usually understood today as moral
rights and also as internationally recognised legal norms that all
countries should respect and protect. However, this does not mean that
children’s rights are no longer unambiguous and uncontroversial. Just
the opposite, several problems concerning children’s rights remain unre-
solved. In this paper, I shall discuss – very shortly – only three of them:
the relationship between human and children’s rights; the controversy
over children’s liberty rights; and the antinomy of rights, that is, the op-
position between the right of the child to freedom of religion and the
right of parents to educate their children in conformity with their own
religious convictions.
Human and children’s rights
The first problem is interesting for the following reason: If, according to the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations in
1948, “everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this
Declaration” (Art. 2), then children must also possess them. Therefore,
there is either no need to indicate and guarantee these rights once again in
the Convention on the Rights of the Child (adopted by the United Nations
in 1989) because it either paradoxically gives children something that
they already had, or the word “everyone” in the Declaration does not re-
fer to children, and for this reason children’s rights were provided in the
Convention. But this would mean that children are not (yet) human be-
ings and yet that is precisely why they could not have all the rights given in
https://doi.org/10.32320/1581-6044.31(3-4)107-112 107
Short scientific article
Some Other Problems with Children’s Rights
Zdenko Kodelja, Educational Research Institute, Slovenia
As evident in academic discussions, including in this themat-
ic issue, children’s rights are usually understood today as moral
rights and also as internationally recognised legal norms that all
countries should respect and protect. However, this does not mean that
children’s rights are no longer unambiguous and uncontroversial. Just
the opposite, several problems concerning children’s rights remain unre-
solved. In this paper, I shall discuss – very shortly – only three of them:
the relationship between human and children’s rights; the controversy
over children’s liberty rights; and the antinomy of rights, that is, the op-
position between the right of the child to freedom of religion and the
right of parents to educate their children in conformity with their own
religious convictions.
Human and children’s rights
The first problem is interesting for the following reason: If, according to the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations in
1948, “everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this
Declaration” (Art. 2), then children must also possess them. Therefore,
there is either no need to indicate and guarantee these rights once again in
the Convention on the Rights of the Child (adopted by the United Nations
in 1989) because it either paradoxically gives children something that
they already had, or the word “everyone” in the Declaration does not re-
fer to children, and for this reason children’s rights were provided in the
Convention. But this would mean that children are not (yet) human be-
ings and yet that is precisely why they could not have all the rights given in
https://doi.org/10.32320/1581-6044.31(3-4)107-112 107
Short scientific article
