Published in 2017, and edited by Martin D. Ruck, Michele Peterson-Badali and Michael Freeman, the Handbook of Children’s Rights: Global and Multidisciplinary Perspectives provides just what the title suggests. Drawing from the wealth of an impressive array of academic voices, it is acclaimed to demonstrate ‘the richness of a cross-sectorial approach to fulfilling child and adolescent rights’ (Diers) and ‘a powerful and passionate case for upholding the commitments made to the word’s children’ (Lansdown). The collection does indeed live up to this high praise.

The handbook starts with an overview of the discourse on children’s rights, outlined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC; UN General Assembly, 1989). Following this, the editors explain how they will present the discourse on the CRC in five different sections. From a preliminary reading, certain sections seemed more intuitively gathered than others. For instance, ‘Part I — Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Children’s Rights and the CRC’ provided a clear overview of different interpretations of what the CRC means to accomplish, what the purpose of children’s rights are and where they came from. This introductory section is especially helpful for those who want to understand more about the significance and development of this set of rights. For those with an interest in history, Peter N. Stearns’ chapter on ‘History of Children’s Rights’ provides a particularly fascinating account of how children’s wellbeing was secured prior to the development of human rights, through protective measures and concepts of community and law.

Following this, ‘Part II — Social Science an Theoretical Perspectives on Children’s Rights’ provides another clear collection of perspectives on children’s rights through the critical lens of sociology, anthropology, psychology, philosophy and neuroscience. Understanding the psychology behind child development and how this interacts with the application of the more ‘abstract’ principles of rights was particularly helpful. For instance, Charles Helwig and Elliot Turiel express this tension when they suggest that children’s rights have to be understood as rationally defensible in a global context; that is, that ‘children’s rights are not merely intellectual concepts…but have real functional significance in contributing to children’s psychological health and happiness’ (p. 145). It could perhaps have been fruitful to have a few more chapters from other disciplines, broadening the section to ‘humanities’ as well as social sciences; however, the texts gave a good overview of critical disciplinary engagement with children’s rights.

The preceding sections then showcase a diverse array of pragmatic cases of children’s rights, and followed particular sub-discourses in the conversation. I found these sections less intuitively categorised, though I think this also served the purpose of showing just how complex it is to apply theoretical principles to specific contexts. Particularly enriching accounts of the complexity of understanding children’s rights in different contexts were Priscilla Aldern’s ‘Health and Children’s Rights’, which explains the unique physical vulnerabilities that children face, and Rachel Conrad’s ‘Children’s Right to Write’, that shows the interconnection between a child’s self-perspective and her sense of agency. I also found Stuart Lester’s chapter on ‘Children’s Right to Play’ to be a thoughtful philosophical essay on the interconnectivity between the child’s imagination and the development of a ‘good life’ (p. 312).

I read the Handbook with fascination and found it to deliver a thorough interdisciplinary account of the current conversation on children’s rights. It contextualises the conversation of the CRC for those without a background in rights theory, while also bringing the reader into the diversity of the discourse. The Handbook illustrates just how complex, yet urgent, the application of human rights is in ensuring the wellbeing of a historically vulnerable population that nonetheless serves as a critical social agent. It does not provide a rose-tinted approach. Rather, it critically assesses where the limits of rights theory might lie, and how to address them in particularised contexts without resorting to generalising western moral norms. This is an illuminating read, and an important contributor to the discourse on human rights.

© 2017 Anna Westin

Anna Westin, PhD, Lecturer in Ethics, London School of Theology