Post on 03-Jan-2016
A Comparative Analysis of Children’s Rights:
Introducing the Children’s Rights Index
Brian GranCase Western Reserve
University
What good are rights?
Tools Symbols Outcomes Rights
Criticisms of Rights
Differences Enforcement Relevance “Rights Talk”
Criticisms of Children’s Rights
Caretaker and enforcement
Private sector
Relevance of children’s rights
Useful in public and private sectors
Change cultural attitudes
Children’s Rights
What rights do children possess?
Citizenship and Human Rights
Civil Political Social + Economic
Human rights
Sources of children’s rights
1924: Declaration of the Rights of the Child (Declaration of Geneva)
1959: Declaration of the Rights of the Child
1989: Convention on the Rights of the Child
U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child
1989
191 countries
Civil, political, social, and economic rights
Civil
Article 14: Freedom to practice religion
Article 37: Freedom from imprisonment with adults
Political
Article 15: Assembly ? : Suffrage
Social
Article 24: Right to education Article 24: Right to health care
Economic
Article 32: Freedom from hazardous work
Article 32: Freedom from economic exploitation
Children’s Rights Index (CRI)
Measures an individual child’s formal rights (to 2 of each) Civil Political Social Economic
Children’s Rights Index (CRI)
4 levels (1) no right; (2) significant, formal limit; (3) minor, informal limit; and (4) right exists.
Possible range: 8 to 32
CRI
Reliability Inter-item: .714 Inter-observer: .65 +
Validity Skewness: .013 Kurtosis: -.56
CRI
22.22: Average 13: Somalia, Swaziland 15: Bhutan 30: Andorra, Canada, Finland,
Netherlands 31: St. Kitts and Nevis
Descriptive information
CRI < 15 CRI 16-23 CRI > 24 Country wealth $7775 $4643.71 $13080 Democracy 0 10.34 25.09 International Law 2143.67 962.81 848.56 CRI 14 20.01 26 N 5 119 71
Explaining CRI Levels
World polity factors: Presence of Intl Human Rights Orgs + Economic Openness
Country factors: Country wealth + Democracy + % Women in Parliament
Independent variables
International human rights organizations: natural log
Economic openness: square root of economic openness
Country wealth: square root of GDPPC Democracy: Vanhanen Women in Parliament: % in Parliament
Results
Unstand. B Std. Error Beta t Sig. Intl HRts Orgs -.05 .162 -.024 -.311 .756 Economic Open
.126 .109 .078 1.156 .25
Country wealth
.026 .009 .299 2.821 .006
Democracy .105 .029 .355 3.664 .000 Women in Parliament
.054 .029 .134 1.852 .066
Constant 16.734 1.014 16.505 .000
Potential Uses of CRI
Research on internationalization of law
Globalization of values Rights and well being Employment of rights to produce
social change
Moving forward
Replication of CRI Explanations of differences in
children’s rights Impacts of children’s rights