Children’s Rights, Early Childhood, Sociocultural Contexts

Introduction

Since the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCROC, United Nations 1989) was adopted in 1989, it has had a pervasive influence on the way we think about children and childhood in relation to legislation, policy, and practices. As Anne Smith (2016) observed, rights-based thinking changes the perspectives of those who work directly with children because the UNCROC is based on a view of the child as actively engaged, with a claim to individual and collective rights. She noted that UNCROC:

… provides a holistic, unifying vision of children’s rights that provides child advocates, professionals working with children, and policy makers, with a direction and moral imperative for improving policies and practices for children. (p. 155)

When the UNCROC was finally agreed to, it was almost universally adopted. It differed from previously agreed to human rights treaties in its conceptual depth and breadth. As a framework, it is not without problems, and the premise...