Understanding Children’s Rights: A Vision beyond Vulnerability

Abstract

The idea of children’s vulnerability played a critical role in motivating the adoption of the un Convention on the Rights of a Child, but should vulnerability provide the basis for special human rights for children? Are children especially vulnerable relative to adults? This article seeks to explore the idea of children’s vulnerability in understanding the concept of children’s rights. It argues that vulnerability is not a condition peculiar to children. At the same time it recognizes that children experience special vulnerabilities relative to adults. It is these vulnerabilities that provide a justification for the special rights accorded to them under the Convention. The characterisation of children as vulnerable carries the risk that they will be defined by their vulnerabilities. To address the unintended consequences of a vulnerability paradigm, there is a need to expand the conception of children in a way that recognises their evolving capacities and right to participation.