Page 13 - 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. 13
ldren’s Rights to, in and through Education:
Challenges and Opportunities
Zoe Moody, Centre for Children’s Rights Studies, University of Geneva;
University of Teacher Education, Valais
Introduction
Since the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child was
adopted in 1989 (hereafter the ‘Convention’ or ‘UNCRC’), the issue
of children’s rights has been widely dispersed across the social sphere.
The new socio-legal status given to the child, as the holder of inalienable
and enforceable human rights, pervades the education field generally and
the school in particular (Moody, 2014). Educational stakeholders encoun-
ter these issues on a number of levels, whether working to guarantee all
children with free access to quality education, or defining the framework
conditions which allow children to develop their cognitive, life and emo-
tional skills to their full potential. The key issue is ensuring that by the
end of the educational process all individuals have become socially and
professionally integrated and can exercise their rights to full citizenship
on the local, national and global levels.
The right to education is seen as being both a right in itself and a
means of realising all rights of the child. Consequently, the obligations in
the Convention examined here are the signatory States’ undertakings to
make primary education compulsory and available free to all (UNCRC,
1989, Art. 28), to appropriately and actively make the Convention’s prin-
ciples and provisions widely known to adults and children (UNCRC,
1989, Art. 42), while also promoting human rights, fundamental free-
doms, equality of sexes, tolerance among peoples and cultural diversity
(UNCRC, 1989, Art. 29). It is broadly understood that these legal provi-
sions are the foundations of the right to education and of children’s rights
https://doi.org/10.32320/1581-6044.31(3-4)11-25 11
Scientific review article
Challenges and Opportunities
Zoe Moody, Centre for Children’s Rights Studies, University of Geneva;
University of Teacher Education, Valais
Introduction
Since the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child was
adopted in 1989 (hereafter the ‘Convention’ or ‘UNCRC’), the issue
of children’s rights has been widely dispersed across the social sphere.
The new socio-legal status given to the child, as the holder of inalienable
and enforceable human rights, pervades the education field generally and
the school in particular (Moody, 2014). Educational stakeholders encoun-
ter these issues on a number of levels, whether working to guarantee all
children with free access to quality education, or defining the framework
conditions which allow children to develop their cognitive, life and emo-
tional skills to their full potential. The key issue is ensuring that by the
end of the educational process all individuals have become socially and
professionally integrated and can exercise their rights to full citizenship
on the local, national and global levels.
The right to education is seen as being both a right in itself and a
means of realising all rights of the child. Consequently, the obligations in
the Convention examined here are the signatory States’ undertakings to
make primary education compulsory and available free to all (UNCRC,
1989, Art. 28), to appropriately and actively make the Convention’s prin-
ciples and provisions widely known to adults and children (UNCRC,
1989, Art. 42), while also promoting human rights, fundamental free-
doms, equality of sexes, tolerance among peoples and cultural diversity
(UNCRC, 1989, Art. 29). It is broadly understood that these legal provi-
sions are the foundations of the right to education and of children’s rights
https://doi.org/10.32320/1581-6044.31(3-4)11-25 11
Scientific review article
