TOPIC 2: CHILDREN’S RIGHTS AND VULNERABILITY

According to the Children Act of Uganda, Chapter 59, a child is a person below the age of 18
years.
Summary of Children’s rights
1. Entitlement to stay with parents
2. A right to education and counselling
3. A right to clothing
4. A Right to immunisation
5. A Right to shelter
6. A Right to adequate diet
7. A Right to medical attention
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child comprises four main pillars - the right to
survival, the right to protection, the right to development and the right to participation. These
rights are based on the non-discrimination principle and all actions must be in line with the best
interest of children.

1. The Right to Survival

Since the first moment children are born, they have the right to life. They have the right to a
registered name and nationality. They have the right to be cared for and protected by their
parents and not be separated from their families. The government needs to safeguard these
rights and provide basic services for children to survive and thrive. This includes quality
healthcare, age-appropriate nutrition, clean drinking water and a safe place to live as well as
access to future opportunities for development.

2. The Right to Protection

Once children are born and survive, they have the right to be protected from all forms of harm
including domestic violence. They must be protected from physical violence and psychological
intimidation may they be within and outside their families. The right to protection also includes
being protected from child labour, tasks that are dangerous or impede their education.
Likewise, children must be protected from harmful substances and drugs. Another important
aspect is protection from trafficking, smuggling, kidnapping, sexual abuse and all forms of
exploitation against children. The government also has the duty to ensure that child victims are
rehabilitated and reintegrated into society with dignity.
In terms of the justice process, every child not only has the right to fair treatment but also
unique attention to children’s needs meaning every legal procedure needs to take into account
the best interest of children.
For children separated from their families, they have the right to be protected and cared for
with respect to their ethnic background, language, religion, and culture. In wartime, every child
must be protected from war or joining the fighting. When children are refugees, they must have
special assistance and protection.
3. The Right to Development
A child today is an adult of tomorrow. Education and development are essential rights. This
should begin with the right to access to early childhood development services and access to
information from various sources with parents responsible for giving guidance. Meanwhile,
children with special needs such as children with disabilities must have equal rights to
development and education that enable them to realize their potential and meaningfully
participate in society. The right to development also includes the opportunity to further
specialized skills and physical and mental abilities that open ways for them to a brighter future
and realize their dream.
4. The Right to Participation
Children are members of society. They may be small in size but they fully have the right to
freely express their thoughts, views and opinions, and participate in society particularly in the
areas affecting them. Their voices must be seriously taken into account in line with their age
and maturity.
Every child and youth have profound potentials. While the government has to facilitate and
support the participation of children and youth, everyone also needs to take action to support
children and youth to participate and exercise their agency as they are also the main driving
force in bringing about positive change to society.
However, we should be mindful that not every child likes his or her rights. When this happens,
what can we do?
CHILD VULNERABILITY
Child vulnerability is the outcome of the interaction of a range of individual and environmental
factors that compound dynamically over time. Types and degrees of child vulnerability vary as
these factors change and evolve. Age, for example, shapes children's needs while also exposing
them to potential new risks.
Factors contributing to child vulnerability
Individual factors contributing to child vulnerability stem from cognitive, emotional and
physical capabilities or personal circumstances, for instance age, disability, a child’s own
disposition or mental health difficulties. They can be invariable, such as belonging to an ethnic
minority or having an immigrant background, or situational, such as experiencing
maltreatment, being an unaccompanied minor or placed in out-of- home care. Chapter 2
provides a more detailed analysis of the following individual factors.
Disability
Children with disabilities are a very broad group with varying capabilities and needs whose
individual functioning is limited by physical, intellectual, communication and sensory
impairments and various chronic conditions. Though the outlook for children with disabilities
has improved considerably over the last few decades, they are still overrepresented in
institutional care settings and more likely to experience maltreatment, particularly neglect.
Compared to non-disabled peers, children with disabilities are more likely to live in in low
socio-economic households and to be bullied.
Mental health difficulties
Evidence suggests that childhood mental health difficulties are becoming more common. Some
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, for example
England (United Kingdom), have recorded a gradual increase over the last 20 years. Potential
explanations are better detection and increased interest in emotional well-being and help-
seeking behaviours. High academic pressures and weakening of family and support units also
play a part.
Inequality contributes to pronounced differences in children’s mental health.
Children from low socio-economic backgrounds are two to three times more likely to develop
mental difficulties than those from high socio-economic backgrounds; material deprivation.
Perceived inferior social status and a stronger parent-child transmission are factors. Highly
educated parents are more able to access timely and specialist support for children.
Immigrant background
Children with immigrant backgrounds are a large and growing group. Factors such as parents
with lower educational attainment and fewer economic resources in the household can affect
their ability to succeed in or complete school. These children also tend to have fewer social
networks established in their host country, speak a language at home that differs from the one
spoken at school, and are more mobile than students without an immigrant background. On
average, across the OECD, native-born students perform better academically; the gap between
children with immigrant background is largest among children who arrive after age 12.
Maltreatment
Environmental risk factors for maltreatment include poverty, living in a poor neighbourhood,
overcrowded housing, intimate partner violence and parental substance misuse. Child factors
include disability and poor child-parent attachment. Identifying children at risk is difficult, as
many children exposed to similar risks are not maltreated. Maltreatment has long and enduring
economic consequences for individuals and society. Adult who were maltreated are more likely
to have lower levels of educational attainment, to earn less and own fewer assets. Maltreatment
negatively predicts poor adult mental health and convictions for non-violent crime.
Out-of-home care
Children in out-of-home care are a particularly vulnerable group. Child protection systems in
most countries operate quite differently, shaping the numbers of children entering and leaving
the care system. These differences are linked to countries’ social, political and cultural
contexts, legislative and policy frameworks, child protection system resources and constraints,
and child protection workers’ training and decision-making.
The outcomes for children in out-of-home care are lower than for the general population, across
education, health, adult employment and future earnings. There are opportunities to help these
children catch up, for example by providing care placements with well-supported foster carers.
Support for young adults ageing out of the care system can be critical for eventual labour
market participation. Environmental factors contributing to child vulnerability operate at both
family and community levels. Family factors include income poverty and material deprivation,
parents’ health and health behaviours, parents’ education level, family stress and exposure to
intimate partner violence. Community factors are associated with school and neighbourhood
environments. Environmental factors illustrate the inter-generational aspect of child
vulnerability and the concentration of vulnerable children within certain families and
communities. Chapter 3 provides a more detailed analysis of the following environmental
factors.
Material deprivation
Children are overrepresented in income-poor households. In OECD countries, on average, one
in seven children lives in income poverty. The poverty risk varies by family type and parent’s
employment status; it is six times higher in families with no working-parent than families with
at least one working-parent, and three times higher for single-parent families. Material
deprivation is strongly linked to income poverty. OECD measures material deprivation across
seven dimensions: nutrition, clothing, educational materials, housing conditions, social
environment, leisure opportunities and social opportunities. One in six children in European
OECD countries experiences severe deprivation, measured as being deprived in four
dimensions. In a number of countries, sub-groups of children are deprived across all seven.
Family homelessness is growing by significant levels in some OECD countries, for example
England (United Kingdom), Ireland, New Zealand and some US states. Children in homeless
families are much more likely to suffer from low well-being. Homelessness imposes on
children a difficult set of stressors and adversities including poor diet and missing meals,
increased anxiety, loss of independence, overcrowded living conditions and lack of privacy,
repeated accommodation moves, loss of parental care if accommodated separately, loss of
contact and support from family and friends, school placement disruption, and stigmatisation.
Parents’ health and health behaviours
Childhood conditions have a lifelong impact on health: 6% of poor health at age 50 is
associated with poor health at age 10, controlling for adult socio-demographic factors. Parents
transmit risk factors for poor health to children, including genetic predispositions and poor
health behaviours. High socio-economic status moderates certain genetic risk, for example
smoking, and can influence gene variants that predict higher educational attainment.
Epigenetics also shows that stressful early life experiences and exposure to environmental
toxins can affect gene expression and long-term outcomes.
Parents’ education level
Parents’ level of education strongly influences children’s educational achievements. Across the
OECD, the likelihood of attaining a tertiary education is over 60% for those with at least one
parent who has a tertiary education.
This suggests that parents’ levels of education and income help children succeed regardless of
ability and skills, as children benefit from many opportunities to overcome shortcomings and
accumulate skills valued by the labour market.
Intimate Partner Violence (IPV)
IPV significantly influences child well-being. Exposure to IPV during pregnancy is associated
with low birth weight and pre-term delivery, after controlling for socio-economic and other
factors. In early childhood, it can have long-term consequences on social and emotional
development.
Family Stress
Family stress is caused by the co-occurring factors that contribute to child vulnerability. The
manner in which children learn to respond to stress is shaped by individual traits and the risks
and protective factors in their environment. Children’s stress responses can become excessive
and prolonged without adequate support from a supportive adult. The presence of chronic stress
in early childhood is serious and contributes to health and emotional and behaviour difficulties.
It weakens the foundation of the brain architecture, causes epigenetic adaptions, disrupts the
hypothalamic pituitary-adrenocortical and compromises the immune system.
Schools
Early childhood care and education (ECEC).
A number of studies suggest that children from lower socio-economic status families
experience particular benefits in the areas of cognitive and social skills development compared
to peers from higher socio-economic backgrounds. Participation in ECEC can influence parents
to engage ore frequently in cognitively stimulating and less passive activities with their
children, helping to lose the gap between disadvantaged children and children from non-
disadvantaged families. Yet children from low socio-economic backgrounds access ECEC at
much lower rates, in some countries up to half.
Primary and secondary education (PISA)
In some countries it is evident that disadvantaged students performed worse than advantaged
students across all assessment domains. For example, for mathematics test scores, school
effects are the most important explanatory factor (33%) followed by family background (14%),
student characteristics (11%) and school policy effects (8%). School effects include the sorting
of students of similar ability or background into the same schools. In all countries, there are
clear advantages to attending a school where students, on average, come from more advantaged
backgrounds.
The aspirations and self-expectations of disadvantaged students can be raised by attending the
same school as advantaged students. PISA shows that children of blue-collar workers who
attend schools alongside children of white-collar workers are around twice as likely to expect
to earn a university degree and work in a management or professional occupation compared to
children of blue-collar workers who perform similarly but attend other schools. The clustering
of poor students in poor schools can have the effect of dampening students’ expectations and
beliefs in themselves.
Neighbourhoods
Neighbourhoods have a causal effect on child and later adult outcomes, distinct from family
factors. Neighbourhoods vary in the opportunities available for children to do well; some have
supportive mechanisms in place that enhance child development, while others have too many
stressors and not enough protective factors. Neighbourhoods can increase the difficulties
experienced by families through concentrated poverty, social isolation and joblessness.
Neighbourhoods can be high-opportunity places for low-income children to grow up in. High-
opportunity neighbourhoods improve the likelihood of social mobility by transmitting
advantages that favour human capital development, such as good schools, more adults in
employment, and lower spatial segregation and crime. Several studies looking at the benefits
for children and adolescents of moving to a high-opportunity neighbourhood point to positive
place exposure effects that are cumulative and linear.