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Childhood
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A Review of Children’s Rights Literature Since the Adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child

Didier Reynaert

University College Ghent, Ghent University, didier.reynaert{at}hogent.be

Maria Bouverne-de-Bie

Ghent University

Stijn Vandevelde

University College Ghent, Ghent University

Children’s rights have become a significant field of study during the past decades, largely due to the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in 1989. Today, scholarly work on children’s rights is almost inconceivable without considering the Convention as the bearer of the children’s rights debate. The goal of this article is to critically explore academic work on the UNCRC. By means of a discourse analysis of international literature, the article maps the academic discourse on children’s rights. Three themes are identified that predominate in the academic work on the UNCRC: (1) autonomy and participation rights as the new norm in children’s rights practice and policy, (2) children’s rights vs parental rights and (3) the global children’s rights industry. That these three themes distinguish contemporary scholarly work on the UNCRC might not be a coincidence, analysed from the process of ‘educationalization’ that has characterized childhood in western societies since the 19th century. The perspective of educationalization presents a contemporary research agenda for children’s rights for the coming decades.

Key Words: autonomy • children’s rights • educationalization • parental rights • participation • sociology of childhood • UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

Childhood, Vol. 16, No. 4, 518-534 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0907568209344270
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