Abstract
The situation of children as legal persons which is an important consideration when attempting to determine whether or not they are or could be full citizens then leads into their participation in decision making. Age of majority is then addressed, moving on to a view of markers for the beginning of adulthood that also includes their responsibility before the law in different legal systems. Following that, cultural definitions of childhood and becoming an adult are looked at in order to place children in the societies they are born and live in from which legal definitions are taken. It then turns to legal and welfare views of children that are essentially contemporary to this work. This is a key area in looking toward the future. It also looks at children’s inclusion and their position in policy making and governance which is an important factor. If full citizenship for children is a viable option which the world must accept and prepare for, then it must be one of the starting points for legislators who will be accountable for that step. Welfare is also covered very briefly and broadly. This chapter draws to an end looking at possible developments in the future for children, that includes greater recognition of children as social actors generally and also implications of their inclusion in governance.
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Notes
- 1.
This is and may always be a contentious notion since adulthood is a subjective cultural notion where assumptions are often made on the basis of Northern values. It is also a legal standard that is usually incorporated into constitutions, basic laws and other laws. In contrast there are numerous examples of traditions in which age is classified not by chronological age but by generation or age related status. Thus here we are guided by the children’s rights standard that describes childhood as 0–18 years of age as the norm.
- 2.
‘Minimum Age Limits Worldwide’, International Centre for Alcohol Policies: http://icap.org/
- 3.
The following ages are mainly taken from United Nations and NGO websites but have been cross-checked through comparison of the given ages between two or more sites. One, however, comes from a single site – in this case ages of consent are taken from the AIDS charity AVERT on http://www.avert.org/aofconsent.htm.
- 4.
See also the UN Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages. There are at present 16 signatories and 55 state parties.
- 5.
I had a number of aijados (godchildren) in Lima, Peru. As their compadre (co-parent, equivalent to godparent) I was expected to contribute generously to the celebration and give the young woman my blessing. I never attended an aijada’s quince años celebration but went to others and, being a stranger, took the time to find out about the event which I attempt to recall here.
- 6.
Often referred to as the ‘House’.
- 7.
In 1833 the Government passed the first Factory Act to improve conditions for children working in factories for very long hours in places where conditions were often appalling. It set out that no child under 9 years of age could work, employers required a medical or age certificate for child workers, children between the ages of 9 and 13 could work no longer than 9 h and those aged 13–18 worked no more than 12 h a day, they could no longer work at night, at least 2 h schooling had to be given each day and four factory inspectors appointed to enforce the law throughout England and Wales. Further Acts in 1844, 1847, 1850, 1853, 1867, 1874 and 1901 eventually brought the working age to a minimum of 12 years. The Education Act of 1870 effectively created the modern system of education in England. It gave rise to a national system of compulsory state education that assured the existence of a dual system of voluntary denominational schools and non-denominational state schools. Elementary education became to all intents and purposes free with the 1891 Education Act. Both processes limited children’s availability for employment.
- 8.
Article 20, part 3 states: Such care could include, inter alia, foster placement, Kafala of Islamic law, adoption, or if necessary placement in suitable institutions for the care of children. When considering solutions, due regard shall be paid to the desirability of continuity in a child’s upbringing and to the child’s ethnic, religious, cultural and linguistic background.
- 9.
In 1993 I had a contract to write a working paper ‘Children’s Participation in Education for Democracy and Peace in Europe’, for UNICEF ICDC, Florence, Italy, published by UNICEF Chile in 1994. It came in the wake of Roger Hart’s Children’s Participation: From tokenism to citizenship in 1992 that had oriented a great deal of interest in children’s participation. As a result the French children’s councils were a major item in this paper. At that time there were just over 300 of them.
- 10.
In some federal states in Mexico the minimum ages at which children are subject to penal law it is 6 years although in most states 11 or 12 years and age 11 for federal crimes. In Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, South Africa, Sudan and Tanzania it is age 7. In Belgium, Brazil, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Peru and the International Criminal Court the official age of criminal responsibility is age 18, although in Brazil, Colombia and Peru there are separate juvenile laws from age 12 that do not ‘criminalise’ young offenders. In the UK the ages are 8 years in Scotland (it is possible for children even younger than eight, in rare cases, to appear in court, although the Lord Advocate must intervene before anyone under 16 years can be charged before an adult court) and age 10 in England and Wales and Northern Ireland. However, there is a campaign for raising criminal responsibility to 18 in all parts of the UK.
- 11.
On page 460 of A Theory of Justice he acknowledges both Piaget and Kohlberg (see Chap. 8) as the intellectual source of his view that by and large shuns a long, drawn out process of becoming a full human being.
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Milne, B. (2013). Issues Concerning the Legal Status, Welfare, Policy Making and Inclusion of Children in Governance and Full Citizenship. In: The History and Theory of Children’s Citizenship in Contemporary Societies. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6521-4_10
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