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The rights of the child in global perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 February 2016

Marian Quartly
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Abstract

This paper considers the development of the idea of children's rights, firstly at an international level, and then nationally and locally. Focussing on the central ‘right’ as defined by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) – that ‘the child … should grow up in a family environment, in an atmosphere of happiness, love, and understanding’ – the paper points to a contradiction implicit here between the child imagined as a rights-bearing individual and the child imagined as in need of protection, by the family and, if necessary, by the state.

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