Children's Rights and Power

by Mary John

Published 15 April 2003
Examining children's rights from a global perspective, Mary John considers how children experience power, being powerful and the transformation of power relationships. She explores this issue objectively yet compassionately, comparing the situation of children to that of powerless minority groups and asking why children are rarely included in debates on social accountability, freedom and autonomy.

Examining children's rights in relation to current thinking about the nature of power, the role of competence within this, and how perception of power is determined by culture and economics, she presents discussion of issues and movements affecting children around the world uncovered in her research, including:
* the Children's Parliament in India
* the rise in violence among Japanese schoolchildren
* child soldiers in Africa
* democratic schooling in Albany, USA.

She argues that democracies are not only sought in the public sphere, they are created within the emotional intimacies of private social worlds, presenting the child with new challenges for the recognition and realization of their rightful autonomy and agency. With in-depth research and thought-provoking discussion, this book supplies a wealth of information for policy makers, social workers and academics, articulated in a compelling and lively style.

A Charge Against Society

by Mary John

Published 1 April 1997
The third volume in the Children in Charge series examines changing attitudes towards children and measures currently in operation to protect them. The contributors analyse how the child's safety and well-being can be protected, while respecting their right to be involved and to have their opinions taken into account, and examine the causes within society for social malfunction in relation to children. They approach these questions with such diverse themes as working with street children in Brazil, the work of the Refugee Council with unaccompanied child refugees, research on domestic violence and parental access, the issue of child labour in Mexico, child abuse and the rights to information about their condition of the child with cancer.