From the Editors
Landon Pearson and Virginia Caputo
Welcome to the inaugural issue of the Canadian Journal of Children’s Rights
(CJCR)/Revue canadienne des droits des enfants. The idea for the CJCR grew out of a number of conversations the two of us had in December 2012 regarding the importance of inclusive,
dynamic and open dialogue among academics, practitioners, policy makers, young people and all those interested in issues concerning children’s rights. Our conversations continued into the new year as we finalized our preparations for the annual Child Rights Academic Network symposium held at the end of January. We discussed the need for a place to publish materials produced by child rights scholars and how the Landon Pearson Centre might assist in encouraging such dialogue and activity. Drawing together and building synergies among a variety of individuals and organizations concerned with children’s rights has been a hallmark of the Centre’s approach, whether organizing events or initiating new projects, and we knew we wanted to continually draw on this idea for all the Centre’s initiatives. Out of these conversations, the idea for an open access high quality Canadian journal aimed at considering debates, questions, problems, and practices of children's rights emerged. At the heart of this project are the Centre’s enduring key values of inclusive collaboration and youth participation. The design of the Journal in three sections – academic, demonstrative and youth-focused – and welcoming submissions in both official languages, reflects these values.
With this context in mind, we come to this inaugural issue on the theme, “Looking Back, Moving Forward: Reflecting on 25 Years of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.” The articles in this issue reflect the diverse backgrounds of our authors and echo the core of what the Journal is meant to be: interdisciplinary, intersectoral and inclusive. Each of the authors offers readers their critical reflections on the impact of the CRC for their research, discipline, practice, and artistic production, as well as their thoughts on the future of children’s rights. Taken together, they offer a wide and critical lens on the challenges and possibilities in using a rights-based framework. Using different approaches, the articles address conceptual, theoretical,
including age, culture, and gender, among others. Readers are invited to connect with these dialogues and debates from across disciplines and to hear and value the perspectives of young people.
About the Inaugural Issue of the Canadian Journal of Children’s Rights
The Journal begins with an in-depth interview with Landon Pearson conducted by Mónica Ruiz-Casares, whose own scholarly work focuses on the protection of orphan, separated and unsupervised children. Her research expertise, drawing on the CRC, has impacted social policy and programming for children around the world. In the interview, Landon Pearson reflects on the long trajectory of her career as a Senator and child rights advocate, as well as a steadfastproponent for enabling children’s voices to be heard. As she reflects on the CRC’s achievements and shortcomings, Landon Pearson gives readers her unique insight into what she believes may lie ahead for the CRC and a rights-based framework. She generously shares with readers her advice on how to advance children’s rights in order to effect social change in the future based on her broad understanding of the issues from her past and present experiences.
The set of articles in this section that follow are all peer reviewed and include Myriam Denov and Natasha Blanchet-Cohen’s work on war-affected youth who leave their countries to resettle in Canada. Drawing on rich ethnographic accounts, the authors examine the impact of the CRC for the actual lives of young people. They provide a critical assessment of Canada’s role and obligations to young people in meeting their needs and rights, and point out ways that policy and practice can better respond to issues facing war-affected children and youth as they resettle in Canada.
Yvon Dandurand presents readers with an overview of an instrument newly adopted by the United Nations General Assembly aimed at preventing violence against children. The instrument is called the United Nations Model Strategies and Practical Measures on the
Elimination of Violence against Children in the Field of Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice. In the article, Yvon Dandurand describes the new instrument and the impact it potentially has on the ways the criminal justice system, child protection services, and child-serving agencies can respond to and prevent violence against children. This informative article on a new UN
including Canada, have implemented four of the General Measures of the CRC. This overview is both illustrative and a useful explanation of why these measures are important to consider in a broader context. The article by Mouna Haddad focuses on her work on the emerging issue of the CRC and unaccompanied foreign minors. She recounts for readers a well known 2002 Belgian case concerning the detention and subsequent expulsion from Belgium of an unaccompanied five-year old who had arrived in the country without proper documentation. The case contributed to the recognition of an urgent need for a system to protect and represent children and youth in similar situations. As Mouna Haddad explains, the phenomenon of unaccompanied minors is an issue for many countries and any response must include the protection of children’s rights. The final article in this section is Kelly O’Neill’s work in a new and burgeoning area of research at the nexus of business and children’s rights. She argues that the CRC cannot remain on the periphery of business and corporate social responsibility matters. Kelly O’Neill offers her analysis of how well the participation rights of children are accounted for in business in view of the CRC. Taken together, the articles in the section amply demonstrate the applicability and reach of the CRC and child rights issues for scholars from a variety of disciplines and interests.
The anchor article for the second section of the Journal is written by Gerison Lansdown, an international child rights advocate who has written extensively on the CRC. She argues that children’s participation, as laid out in Article 12, is a key concept that is central to understanding how to implement the CRC. Gerison Lansdown shares with readers her important reflections on the past 25 years of the Convention and offers her vision for what challenges and opportunities may lie ahead given her extensive experience in the field. The articles that follow in this section include a diversity of voices and experiences reflecting on the application of the CRC in
particular contexts. In a piece written by Jamie Neil, readers learn how the Society for Children and Youth, a child and youth serving agency in British Columbia, gradually incorporated the CRC into its approach for creating social change for children and youth in the province. Jamie Neil guides the reader through a discussion of the ways the CRC’s four principles informed the ways the SCY designed and implemented their programming and projects over time.
strategy and tool for action. Their dynamic approach brings together health, children’s rights and practice in a novel way to effect change for children in health care contexts. The final article in this section from Manuel Finelli and colleagues demonstrates a method for consulting with young schoolchildren between the ages of four and seven and how their responses can be incorporated into policy frameworks. In asking children to use their imaginations to explore questions of school quality, activities in school, and meaningful education, the authors demonstrate how participatory research with young children results in important and insightful policy
recommendations based on children’s experience.
The final section of the Journal features the creative and thoughtful expressions by children and young people. In this first issue we have included spoken word poetry produced by Grade 8 students from Glashan Public School in Ottawa, Ontario who were involved in a school project on Indigenous Citizenship. Their insightful spoken word poetry considers many of the issues that are key to understanding the historical and contemporary experiences of Aboriginal Canadians. We also received a poignant submission from Robin Corey Forbell Ramsay that is included here.
The next part of the youth section presents the words spoken by young people at a celebration of the 25th Anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child hosted by the Landon Pearson Centre at Carleton University on May 15, 2014. The four speakers were asked to reflect on the CRC from the perspectives of their own lives as students, activists, school representatives, and in health care contexts. In future we plan to encourage young people’s submissions on projects, performances, and other activities in which they are involved.
