Alderson, P; (2015) Michael Freeman’s views of children’s rights and some ideas arising from his views. In: Diduck, A and Peleg, N and Reece, H, (eds.) Children, Family, Culture and Philosophy: Essays in Honour of Michael Freeman. (pp. 203-222). Brill: Leiden, Netherlands.

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Abstract

Michael Freeman is a leading exponent and advocate of children’s rights, through his own writing and lectures, through his edited books and, since 1992, as founder editor of The International Journal of Children’s Rights. The Journal has helped to shape international understanding, research, debate, policy and action on children’s rights and on the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). Scholars and advocates from a range of disciplines and professions have analysed and conducted research related to the UNCRC, to children’s evolving capacities, and to children’s rights and interests in many varied contexts. Yet there has not always been insight into the basically legal nature of the UNCRC and of rights. Children’s rights have, at times, been misunderstood as contingent social constructions, or they have been reduced into the vague concept of “participation”. This paper will consider Michael Freeman’s incisive legal approach to children’s rights, grounded in his thorough knowledge of law and ethics and the history of human rights, as well as his robust defence of children’s rights. It will then discuss some ideas that have developed from his work.

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