¶ … history there has been a major hypocrisy when it comes to children and the way they have been treated. On the one hand children are the most precious commodity on earth. They are the future politicians, doctors, and evangelists that will grow up to lead the world. They are the people who will eventually cure disease, invent marvelous contraptions and change the world. By all intents and purposes children are the world's most precious commodity and those in the United Kingdom are included in the lot. However throughout the history of the United Kingdom children for the most part have not had a lot of rights or protections afforded them. In more recent history this pattern began to change and as those changes took place the true nature of the wrongs of the past came to light. As the United Kingdom continued to work toward change the issue of children's rights came under fire. Those who believe children are not given enough rights pushed to provide legal protections and mandates for them in the future. Those who believe children do not need rights anymore than they need to vote, drink or drive, believe that it is the duty of their parents to protect the children when needed. Unfortunately the issue of child abuse enters the equation and it becomes evident that it is not always the parents who are going to protect the children. This paper will attempt to explore the issue of children's rights from both sides of the issue and explain each side's views and stands. The paper will use mandates already in place and also propose new ideas as it works to uncover the best interest of the children it envelopes.
INTRODUCTION
Every so often on the news channels residents of the United Kingdom see a story about child abuse that is shocking. In one such case a little girl named Victoria Climbie was abused so badly the hardest of professional hearts had to stop and catch their breath when they were apprised of the events of the child's short lived life.
The child had been entrusted to a great aunt so that the child could get a better education according to court records. She was so badly abused by this aunt and the aunt's boyfriend that even the most stoic reporter was shocked beyond belief.
Her treatment included making her sleep naked each night in a bath, without blankets or heating, her arms and legs bound with masking tape. After some time she was put in a black plastic sack and forced to lie in her own excrement and urine. She was fed as a dog by having her face pushed into a plate while she was tied up in the bath. She was assaulted repeatedly by Kouao and hit with a bicycle chain by Manning. 'To say that Kouao and Manning treated Victoria like a dog would be wholly unfair,' said Mr. Garnham. "
The child was seen by hospitals and doctors who suspected abuse and notified the authorities. The authorities sent the child back to the aunt with the belief that case workers would look into the matter. This never happened and before long the little girl was dead, murdered at the hands of those who were supposed to love and protect her.
While cases like Victoria's make national news and shock the sensibilities of many, there are many other cases that never get to the televisions or radios and nobody ever hears of the scared abused children who are the victims of such things.
There are many ways for a child to have their rights violated. They can be beaten, or hurt physically but there are other rights that can be violated without that occurring. Children can be neglected in many ways. They can be mistreated in the area of food, shelter and clothing. They can mistreated by not having legal rights in the court system or they can be mistreated by not having the right to speak up about their treatment.
For many years children in the United Kingdom had no rights. The national government believed that the parents of the children would provide what the children needed and also would bring attention to the authorities anything that the children suffered from and needed help with. In recent history it has been realized world wide as well as in the United Kingdom that this is not always the case, and even when it is the lack of rights for children often prevented effective protections for those children.
When the United Nations recently decided to author a child right mandate the United Kingdom assisted by providing its major child right developments that it had been developing for its own use. Before the United Kingdom began to revamp the way its children were being protected and treated many nations in the...
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