A Response to K.A. Bentley's ‘Can There Be Any Universal Children's Rights?’

Bibliographic Data

ID12593303
AuthorsSonja Grover (Lakehead University), Sonja C Grover (Lakehead University, corresponding author)
Year2007
Volume11
Issue4
Pages429-443
Publication date2007-10-30
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe International Journal of Human Rights (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1364-2987 • E-ISSN: 1744-053X
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13642980701659955
OpenAlexW1966409630
LanguageEN
Citations received4

Children's rights are conceptually indistinguishable from human rights generally. Hence, children's rights are universal to the extent that human rights are universal. Indeed, it is a feature of the concept of universal rights that no status, including age, precludes one from such fundamental human rights for they are inherent. Bentley's question: ‘Can There Be Any Universal Children's Rights?’ is a challenge to the very notion of universal children's rights as a concept and is not confined to enforcement problems. The question is, however, in practice asked only by academics about those children at highest risk of serious human rights violations. The latter at-risk child populations most often do not include the children of the elite. It is fundamentally then a question asked by academics only in respect of the children of the poor and dispossessed; that is, other people's children

Elite · Enforcement · Fundamental rights · Human rights · Law and economics · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Universal law · Children's Rights and Participation · Ethics and Legal Issues in Pediatric Healthcare · Law · Political Philosophy and Ethics

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