" Of course the Convention claims that children are a special interest, with the need for special rights, but in the world of public opinion, special interests are too often framed as only benefiting one interest at the expense of others. Acknowledging that the establishment and maintenance of special rights for children is merely the development of further tools for the successful maintenance of an equitable society precludes this pigeonholing, because it frames helping children as a means of helping everyone.
Nonetheless, a potential drawback of using an NGO to work for the rights of the child remains in the fact that focusing on this issue does mean that other specific issues will not be granted the same time and money, but even here one may note that focusing on the rights of the child can actually work towards improving the time and money available for other issues, because once again, child represent a special case. In the same way that children require extra care and protection, those who provide this care and protection must similarly receive support, economically and politically. By elevating the rights of the child and acknowledging that it is a universal responsibility of every citizen to care about children in his or her country (or on his or her planet), an NGO would be laying the social framework necessary for ensuring that undue strain is not placed on certain individuals such as parents and teachers, thus giving those individuals more of their own time and money to spend on other endeavors. Thus, while focusing on the rights of the child means that in the short-term the NGO's time and money will be diverted from other causes, the rights of children in one specific area in which success means exponential benefits in all areas of society.
Specifically, one of the most important things an NGO could do to work for the rights of the child as outlined in the Convention is education, not of children, but rather the general public, both in regards to the contents of the Convention and the implications it would have for individual's lives. Of the two countries which have not yet ratified the treaty, the United States and Somalia, Somalia has indicated that it plans on ratifying it soon (UNICEF 2011). The main focus for the NGO then, should be the United States, and in particular educating those groups who see ratification of the Convention as a threat to their religious freedom. By definition, religious groups have altogether different goals from the general community, because their worldview is oriented around campaign with two main points. Firstly, it would focus on how elevating child rights elevates the rights of all humans, but more importantly, it would attempt to demonstrate that far from infringing on religious freedoms, elevating the rights of the child would serve to ensure that society is as equitable and just as possible, thus maintaining the expressive space in which religion can be freely practiced. A third possible approach could be to educate and inform about the ways in which religion already highlights some of the special rights of the child, but this approach is more problematic as it risks encouraging continued religious belief, so the NGO would have to decide if the short-term acceptance of the rights of the child on the part of some American religious groups is worth the long-term encouragement of those religious groups. Even then, however, it seems difficult to argue that improving the immediate conditions of children is not worth the future risk of continued magical thinking and regressive social organizations.
An NGO working to support and protect the rights of the child as laid out in the United Nation's Convention on the Rights of the Child must first begin with an honest appraisal of the limitations of legal and political documents as well as the true purpose and function of those documents in relation to society. Acknowledging that rights, far from being essential or inherent, are merely a means by which society can ensure its successful and equitable function, would allow an NGO to begin an education campaign that focuses on highlighting the ways in which child rights affect everyone in society, not just children and parents. Framing the issue in this way helps forestall two of the biggest drawbacks of an NGO focusing on any specific issue, because it prevents the fight for child rights from being pigeonholed as a special interest and ultimately ensures that there will be even more time and money to support other issues in the future.
Works Cited
"Convention on the Rights of the Child." UNICEF. UNICEF, 3 June 2011. Web. 21 Nov 2011.
.
United Nations. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Convention on the Rights
of the Child. 1990. Print. .
United States. U.S. Constitution. Print. .
Ethics Must Be Global Not Local Ethics Must Be Global, Not Local International Business Requirements Global Operations Global Business Ethics The large business units expand their operations in global markets through their own presence as well as franchising and distributors. The business operations are expanded on the basis of various standard practices. The business freedom provided by countries and various global practices are utilized as a basis for taking global operational decisions. The business also
Even though the order promised prisoners would receive humane treatments, the Bush Administration said that Geneva Conventions was not applicable to them (Goldsmith, 2012, p. 39). The Detainee Treatment Act, sponsored by Senator John McCain sponsored the Detainee Treatment Act, states that "no court, justice, or judge shall have jurisdiction to hear or consider…an application for a writ of habeas corpus filed by or on behalf of an alien detained
Indeed, Hilts suggests that the conflict of interest between subject well-being and experimental results is often so significant that the system is threatening to escalate beyond the control of its administrators. The author notes that a conference on conflicts of interest in medical research has yielded evidence of questionable practices between the industry and researchers who test drugs or medical devices. It appears that money in medical research speaks as
Ethics of Human Cloning Ever since Dolly the Sheep was initially cloned in the latter portion of the 20th century, there has been widespread debate over the ethical issues and the practicality of human cloning. Many points of these issues are elucidated within a pair of essays in which the respective authors argue for and against cloning. John Harris' article, "The Poverty of Objections to Human Reproductive Cloning" examines these points
Ethics in Software and Copyright Infringements in the Balkans The first point one has to look at is the situation in these countries and their position in terms of development as also the size of the potential market. There are a total of eight countries and most of them have been in political turmoil till about ten years ago. These countries are all breakaway portions of other bigger countries, or the
All these charters that have clearly defined the boundaries of what both the positive i.e. natural rights and negative i.e. The unjust exploitative rights of the people are and how no institution or research domains have the right or power to violate them (Dierkes, Hoffmann and Marz, 1996). Based on the above fact, we have to consider all the concerns related towards security of an individual as well as his
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now