Children's Rights: From Philosophy to Public Policy [Hardcover]

Despite the existence of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child there still exists a debate on whether children can really hold rights. This book presents a clear theory of children's rights by examining controversial case studies. The author presents a pathway to translating rights into practical social and political instruments for change.Table of contents
List of illustrations
Preface
PART I
1. Introduction
2. What is Special about Children?
3. Why Children do not hold Rights
4. Capacity and Competence
5. Why Children have Rights
PART II
6. A Right to Develop
7. A Right to Know
8. A Right to Medical Decision Making
9. A Right to be Loved
10. A Future for Children ' 's Rights
References
Index

This is an accessible and erudite engagement with controversial and highly important human rights issues. The book makes a significant and original contribution to a long-neglected area of study in the otherwise voluminous literature around human rights. Katharine Gelber, Professor of Political Science and International Studies and ARC Future Fellow, University of Queensland, Australia

Guided by the innovative use of the concepts of capacity and competence, [this book] offers a refreshingly original look at children's rights. Written in clear and direct language, empirically well informed, and with a sophisticated grasp of the philosophical issues at stake, it re-invigorates the debate on what such rights demand of us, especially in several difficult and contentious areas of public policy. David Archard, Professor of Philosophy, Queen's University, Belfast, UK