Human Rights Dilemmas in Child Protection
Course Information
Course Information: Spring 1, Jan 28, 2014
Course number: GHP 553
10:30 AM – 12:20 PM, Tuesdays and Thursdays
FXB Center, Room 710
Course Instructor:
Office Address:
Email:
Jacqueline Bhabha, JD, MSc
Room 703D
FXB Center for Health & Human Rights
Harvard School of Public Health
651 Huntington Avenue, 7th Floor
Boston, MA 02115 USA
Jacqueline_Bhabha@harvard.edu
Teaching Assistant:
Email:
Sara Lubetsky
sel318@mail.harvard.edu
Course Learning Objectives & Competencies
At the end of the course, students will be able to:
1. Analyze and assess child vulnerabilities and child rights needs comprehensively
and effectively craft and implement an appropriate response.
2. Describe the factors that will enable them, as future leaders and policy makers in
the public health and child protection arena, to effectively communicate
strategies for resolving human rights dilemmas in child protection to
professional colleagues and peers, and to employees working under their
supervision.
3. Analyze the critical elements of a child protection challenge in a particular
empirical context, to identify key factors requiring investigation and
intervention, and to present the outcome of this problem solving exercise lucidly
and concisely in the form of a coherent case.
Outcome Measures
Students taking the course for credit and auditors will be expected to attend all classes,
cover all required readings, and participate in class discussion. Grades will be based on
class participation, oral presentation of the human rights dilemmas arising in a
particular child protection problem selected by the student, and submission of the
written analysis (15 pages, 1.5 spaced, font size 12). The presentation and final
submission will rely on key concepts elaborated during the course. The final submission
will be a written analysis of a particular child protection problem. Details regarding the
assignments will be discussed in class. The written analysis will be due on the last day of
class as noted (see course schedule).
Class participation will be evaluated taking into account the student’s grasp of the
assigned materials, the responsiveness to in class questions posed by the instructor and
the quality of contributions made to in class discussions and debates. The oral
presentation will be evaluated based on the lucidity, depth and insight into the case
presented. The written submission will be evaluated in terms of the strength of the
argument presented, the extent of relevant research undertaken, and the sophistication
of the analysis of the child protection challenge addressed. The final grade will be
based on the following components:
Class participation: 30%; oral presentation: 20%; written paper 50%.
Readings
The required readings can be accessed online by enrolled students via the course iSite.
Required Text:
25+ Human Rights Documents (Center for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia
University, 2005)
Useful Websites:
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UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) –
www.ohchr.org
OHCHR Universal Periodic Review (country reports) –
www.ohchr.org/en/hrbodies/upr/pages/uprmain.aspx
US Department of State Country Reports on Human Rights Practices –
www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt
UN Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) – www.unhcr.org
UN Global Migration Group – www.globalmigrationgroup.org
UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Human Trafficking and Migrant
Smuggling - www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/index.html
UN Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking (GIFT) www.ungift.org/knowledgehub
UNICEF – http://www.unicef.org/
Save the Children –
http://www.savethechildren.org/site/c.8rKLIXMGIpI4E/b.6115947/k.8D6E/Officia
l_Site.htm
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Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and
Armed Conflict childrenandarmedconflict.un.org
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Global ranking of country adherence to children's rights
www.kidsrightsindex.org
Lecture Schedule
Session 1
01/28/14
What is Child Protection? Theoretical Underpinnings
and Scope
Session 2
01/30/14
What are International Human Rights? Key Elements
and Definitions
Session 3
02/04/14
Human Rights Responses to Child Protection Challenges
Session 4
02/06/14
Child Labor: Evidence and Legal Framework (Kathleen
Hamill)
Session 5
02/11/14
Child Labor: Dilemmas and Responses (± guest lecturer
Roger-Claude Liwanga)
Session 6
02/13/14
Child Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation: Evidence and
Legal Framework
Student Paper ideas
Session 7
02/18/14
Child Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation: Dilemmas and
Responses (± guest lecturer Siddharth Kara)
Student Paper ideas
Session 8
02/20/14
Child Soldiers: Evidence and Legal Framework
Session 9
02/25/14
Child Soldiers: Dilemmas and Responses
Session 10
02/27/14
Child Statelessness: Evidence and Legal Framework
Session 11
03/04/14
Forced Child Migrants/Refugees/Asylum Seekers:
Evidence and Legal Framework
Session 12
03/06/14
Undocumented, Refugee, Asylum Seeking and
Persecuted Children: Dilemmas and Responses (± guest
lecturer Heidi Ellis)
Session 13
03/11/14
Student Presentations
Session 14
03/13/14
Student Presentations; Final Papers Due
Human Rights Dilemmas in Child Protection
Spring 1, 2014
Reading List
Class 1: What is Child Protection: Theoretical Underpinnings and Scope of
Concept
United Nations Economic and Social Council, UNICEF Child Protection Strategy.
http://www.unicef.org/protection/CP_Strategy_English(1).pdf
UNICEF Thematic Report 2012, Child Protection From Violence, Exploitation And Abuse.
http://www.unicef.org/protection/CP_Thematic_Report_2010(1).pdf
Jack P. Shonkoff, MD, Andrew S. Garner, MD, PhD, The Lifelong Effects of Early Childhood
Adversity and Toxic Stress, American Academy of Pediatrics.
Lia C. H. Fernald, Patricia Kariger, Melissa Hidrobo, and Paul J. Gertler, Socioeconomic
gradients in child development in very young children: Evidence from India, Indonesia, Peru,
and Senegal, United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Child (1959).
Council on Violence against Children, “Violating Children’s Rights: Harmful practices
based on tradition, culture, religion, superstition.”
http://www.crin.org/docs/InCo_Report_15Oct.pdf
Class 2: What are International Human Rights? Key Concepts and Definitions
United Nations, Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948.
www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml
United Nations, Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989.
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/pdf/crc.pdf
African Union, African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (especially
Article 2). http://www.who.int/hhr/African%20Child%20Charter.pdf
Geraldine Van Bueren, Excerpt from “The Definition and Status of the Child in
International Law” in The International Law on the Rights of the Child (the Netherlands:
Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1995.) pp. 32-38 and 45-51.
B. Rwezaura, “The Concept of the Child’s Best Interests in the Changing
Economic and Social Context of Sub-Saharan Africa” in The Best Interests of the Child:
Reconciling Culture and Human Rights (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994) pp. 82-116.
Philip Alston and Bridget Gilmour-Walsh, “The Best Interests of the Child: Towards a
Synthesis of Children’s Rights and Cultural Values,” Innocenti Studies, UNICEF (1996).
Class 3: Human Rights Responses to Child Protection Challenges
Committee on the Rights of the Child, General Comment No. 5 (2003) (General measures
of implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child).
World Bank Health, Nutrition and Population (HNP) Discussion Paper: India’s
Undernourished Children: A Call For Reform And Action.
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/SOUTHASIAEXT/Resources/2235461147272668285/IndiaUndernourishedChildrenFinal.pdf
CASE OF TYRER v. THE UNITED KINGDOM (Application no. 5856/72).
Plan International, “Learn Without Fear- Campaign to End Violence in Schools:
Challenges in India.”
Beth Simmons, “The Protection of Innocents: Rights of the Child” in Mobilizing for
Human Rights: International Law in Domestic Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2009).
pp. 307-348.
Jacqueline Bhabha, Briefing on Adolescents. UNICEF ROSA proceedings. October 2013.
Class 4: Child Labor: Evidence and Legal Framework
Watch: Gem Slaves: Tanzania’s Child Labour.
United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989. Art. 19; 32; 36.
International Labour Organization, Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labour
(C182, 1999).
International Labour Organization, “A Future without Child Labour,” International
Labour Conference, Geneva, 2002. Excerpts: pp. 11-23.
Siddharth Kara, Bonded Labor: Tackling the System of Slavery in South Asia (New York:
Columbia University Press. 2012) pp. 158-184.
Kathleen Fitzgibbon, “Modern Day Slavery: The Scope of Trafficking in Africa,” in
African Security Review, 12:1 (2003).
Class 5: Child Labor: Dilemmas and Responses
International Labour Organization, “Child Labour: What’s to Be Done?” (Geneva: June
1996.) Excerpt: Sections B (“Specific types of action against child labour”) and C (“Other
Lessons of ILO Experience”).
http://ilomirror.library.cornell.edu/public/english/comp/child/text/papers/what/what1.htm
UNICEF, “The State of the World's Children,” 1997. Page 60: “An Agreement in
Bangladesh.”
http://www.unicef.org/sowc97/
T. Padmanabha Rao, “India: Supreme Court Directions in Child Labor Case” in The
Hindu, 11 December 1996 (regarding M. C. Mehta v State of Tamil Nadu and ors, AIR 1997
Supreme Court 699).
Shanta Sinha, “Starting in the Middle” in ed. Jacqueline Bhabha, Coming of Age:
Reframing the Approach to Adolescent Rights (Philadelphia: U Penn Press. Forthcoming).
Class 6: Child Trafficking: Legal Framework and Human Rights Perspective
UNTOC Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially
Women and Children, Supplementing the United Nations Convention against
Transnational Organized Crime.
http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/treaties/CTOC/#Fulltext
UNTOC Protocol Against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea, and Air,
Supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.
http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/treaties/CTOC/#Fulltext
UNICEF, Guidelines on the Protection of Child Victims of Trafficking (2006).
http://www.unicef.org/ceecis/0610-Unicef_Victims_Guidelines_en.pdf
UNICEF, Innocenti Insight, Trafficking in Human Beings, Especially Women and
Children, in Africa.
http://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/406/
Jacqueline Bhabha, Child Migration and Human Rights in a Global World (Princeton:
Princeton University Press. Forthcoming 2013) Ch. 4.
Class 7: Sexual Exploitation: Evidence, Dilemmas and Responses
Siddarth Kara, Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery, (New York: Columbia
University Press. 2009) pp. 83-151.
Julia O'Connell Davidson, Children in the Global Sex Trade (2005: Polity) Excerpts:
Introduction pp. 1-3; Chapter 4 (“Child Migration and ‘Trafficking’”) pp. 6484; and Chapter 8 (“Beyond Binaries”) pp. 140-51. [Course Packet #5]
Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, "Prohibition and Prostitution" and "Learning to
Speak Up” in Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide
(New York. Knopf. 2009) pp. 23-60.
Class 8: Child Soldiers: Evidence and Legal Framework
Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 12.
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/crc.htm.
Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of
Children in Armed Conflict
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/crc-conflict.htm
The Paris Commitments to Protect Children from Unlawful Recruitment or use by
armed forces or armed groups.
http://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/misc/paris-principlescommitments-300107.htm
Ishmael Beah, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier (Farrar, Strauss and Giroux,
2007) chs. 12, 13.
Jacqueline Bhabha, Child Migration and Human Rights in a Global World (Princeton:
Princeton University Press. Forthcoming 2013) ch. 5, 1-15.
P. W. Singer, Children at War, New York: Pantheon, 2005. Excerpts: Chapters 3
(“The Underlying Causes”) pp. 37- 56; and 6 (“The Implications of Children on
the Battlefield”), pp. 94-115.
Human Rights Watch, Stolen Children: Abduction and Recruitment in Northern Uganda,
2003. Excerpt: Chapter IV (“Abduction and Abuses against Children by the Lord’s
Resistance Army”).
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/uganda0303/uganda0403.pdf
International Committee of the Red Cross and the African Child Forum: The Second
International Policy Conference on the African Child, Violence against Girls in Africa
During Armed Conflicts and Crises.
http://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/misc/violence-girls-conference110506.htm
Class 9: Child Soldiers: Dilemmas and Responses
UN Convention on the Status of Refugees, Art. 1 (especially Art. 1 (a), (f).
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/refugees.htm
UNICEF, Cape Town Principles and Best Practice on the Prevention of Recruitment of Children
Into the Armed Forces and Demobilization and Social Reintegration of Child Soldiers in Africa,
http://www.unicef.org/emerg/files/Cape_Town_Principles%281%29.pdf.
Lukwago v. Ashcroft, 329 F.3d 157 (3rd Cir. 2003).
http://openjurist.org/329/f3d/157/lukwago-v-ashcroft
Jacqueline Bhabha, Child Migration and Human Rights in a Global World (Princeton:
Princeton University Press, Forthcoming 2013) Ch. 5, 16-27.
David M. Rosen, Armies of the Young: Child Soldiers in War and Terrorism, (London: British
Library Publishing, 2005) pp. 14-18; 132-153.
Chris Dolan, "Which Children Count? The Politics of Children's Rights in Northern
Uganda." Conciliation Resources: Accord Series, 2002.
http://www.c-r.org/accord-article/which-children-count-politics-children’s-rightsnorthern-uganda-2002
Rachel Brett, "Juvenile Justice, Counter-Terrorism and Children." Disarmament Forum,
vol. 3, 2002.
http://www.unidir.org/bdd/fiche-article.php?ref_article=1729
Matt Hobson, "Forgotten Casualties of War: Girls in Armed Conflict." Save the Children
UK, 2005. pp. 20-22.
http://reliefweb.int/report/world/forgotten-casualties-war-girls-armed-conflict
Class 10: Child Statelessness: Evidence, Legal Framework, Human Rights
Responses
Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 7
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/crc.htm#art7
UDHR Article 15, UN Convention on Statelessness (1975).
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/w2crs.htm
UNICEF, The ‘Rights’ Start to Life: A Statistical Analysis of Birth Registration, pp. 1-20.
http://www.unicef.org/publications/index_25248.html
Jacqueline Bhabha, “From Citizen to Migrant: The Scope of Child Statelessness in the
Twenty-First Century,” in ed. Jacqueline Bhabha, Children without a State: A Global
Human Rights Challenge (Cambridge, MA, MIT Press. 2011).
Laura Van Waas, Nationality Matters: Statelessness under International law (Intersentia:
School of Human Rights Research Series 29, 2009) pp. 163-171.
Plan International: Count Every Child
http://plan-international.org/birthregistration/files/count-every-child-2009
Caroline Vandenabeele, “To Register or not to Register? Legal identity, birth
registration, and inclusive development”, in ed. Jacqueline Bhabha, Children without a
State: A Global Human Rights Challenge (Cambridge, MA, MIT Press. 2011).
Class 11: Children Fleeing Persecution: Evidence, Legal Framework, Human
Rights Responses
UNHCR, “The 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees,”
http://www.unhcr.org/3b66c2aa10.html
UNHCR, “Handbook on Procedures and Criteria for Determining Refugee Status under
the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees,”
(HCR/IP/4/Eng/REV.1 Reedited, Geneva, January 1992,UNHCR 1979),
http://www.unhcr.org/3d58e13b4.html.
U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, “Guidelines for Children’s Asylum
Claims,” December 10, 1998.
http://www.uscis.gov/USCIS/Laws%20and%20Regulations/Memoranda/Ancient%
20History/ChildrensGuidelines121098.pdf
“Matter of S-E-G,” decided July 30, 2008, 24 I & N Dec. 579 (BIA 2008) Interim Decision #
3617.
http://www.justice.gov/eoir/vll/intdec/vol24/3617.pdf
Jacqueline Bhabha, Child Migration and Human Rights in a Global World (Princeton:
Princeton University Press. Forthcoming 2013) Ch. 6.
James M. Freeman and Nguyen Dinh Huu, Voices from the Camps: Vietnamese Children
Seeking Asylum, (Seattle and London: Washington University Press, 2003) pp. 19-39; 6086.
Save the Children, “From Camp to Community: Liberia Study on Exploitation of
Children.” 8 May 2006. pp. 1-16.
http://reliefweb.int/report/liberia/camp-community-liberia-study-exploitationchildren
Class 12: Moving Children: From Persecution to Economic Migration – Human
Rights Dilemmas and Responses
European Convention on Human Rights, Article 8
http://www.echr.coe.int/NR/rdonlyres/D5CC24A7-DC13-4318-B4575C9014916D7A/0/CONVENTION_ENG_WEB.pdf
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Articles 17 and 23
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/ccpr.htm#art17
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/ccpr.htm#art23
Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 9
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/crc.htm#art9
Jacqueline Bhabha, “Independent Children, Inconsistent Adults: International Child
Migration and the Legal Framework”, UNICEF Discussion Document May 2008.
http://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/503/
Jacqueline Bhabha, Child Migration and Human Rights in a Global World (Princeton:
Princeton University Press. Forthcoming 2013) Ch. 7.
In re Martha Andazola-Rivas, United States Board of Immigration Appeals, April 3,
2002. 23 I&N Dec. 319 (BIA 2002). Excerpts: majority opinion, pp. 319-25.
http://www.justice.gov/eoir/efoia/bia/Decisions/Revdec/pdfDEC/3467.pdf
Daniel Kanstroom, Aftermath: Deportation Law and the New American Diaspora (Oxford:
Oxford University Press. 2012) pp. 135-163.
The Urban Institute, Paying the Price: The Impact of Immigration Raids on America’s
Children (National Council of La Raza. 2007) pp. 9-72.
http://www.urban.org/publications/411566.html
Women’s Refugee Commission, Forced From Home: The Lost Boys and Girls of Central
America,
http://womensrefugeecommission.org/programs/detention/unaccompaniedchildren.
Class 13: Student Presentations in Class
Class 14: Student Presentations in Class