In June I had the chance to take a course at the University of Geneva’s Geneva Summer School program. The course was led by Dr. Phillip Jaffe, Dr. Jean Zermatten and Dr. Roberta Ruggiero who are all affiliated with the Centre for Children’s Rights Studies (CCR – UNIGE). The course was an introduction to the multidisciplinary field of Children’s Rights, and covered both theory and practice.
A key focus of the course is the Convention of the Rights of the Child and the work of the Committee of the Rights of the Child. The course is intentionally designed to overlap with the meeting of the Committee in June, so we got to meet many of the current Committee members and hear about their current work.
Did you know that the Convention of the Rights of the Child is the most signed treaty of all time (except for the charter establishing the UN)? Did you know that every country in the world has ratified the Convention, except one? Can you guess which country that is?…. It’s the US. At the time the Convention was being signed, the US Ambassador to the UN did actually sign it, but membership to the treaty was not ratified in the US Congress due to a successful lobbying campaing that objected to language in the charter that would have forced the US to make corporal punishment illegal. Some groups in the US believe that parents have the right to physically harm their children as a form of punishment, so did not want to sign on to the charter. I find this heartbreaking, and hope that the US signs the charter in my lifetime.
Some of the cases that came before the Committee involved severe human rights abuses, especially of orphaned children and children with disabilities. Bringing such cases before the Committee can help improve the situation for children in their home country, just due to the attention, so although from some angles it may look like the powers of the Committee are limited, they are able to improve the lived experiences of many children.
In addition to learning about the Committe of the Rights of the Child, we also met with representatives from Plan International, UNICEF, Save the Children, UNESCO and other organizations to get an understanding of the network of multilateral agencies in this field.
Fellow students in the course in the course included lawyers, educators, policy makers, child protection officers, and current undergradaute students, among others.
Here’s a link to the website for the Committee of the Rights of the Child: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/CRC/Pages/CRCIndex.aspx
You can find out more information about this course here: https://www.unige.ch/genevasummerschools/programme/courses/children-heart-human-rights