The International Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989 established an international framework of action for different countries regarding the creation of various national systems of child protection. Furthermore, the discourse of children’s rights has taken a central position in terms of research and intervention concerning childhood worldwide.
In Latin America, the gradual incorporation of the convention’s principles into national legislations has brought about a significant change in the ways we understand childhood and intergenerational relationships. In turn, this change impacts and challenges the institutions that come into contact with children. Some of these changes are reflected, for example, in the prohibition of child labour and the progressive extension of mandatory years of formal education.
However, in recent years, there have been various criticisms of how the Convention is based on the Western-European conceptions of personhood and childhood, which are by no means universal. The consequences of these assumptions for diverse experiences, such as those of indigenous and rural childhoods in Latin America, are manifold and deserve to be made visible.
At a time when discourses about recognizing ethnic and linguistic diversity and their implications have become more relevant on the continent, it is necessary to critically review what this means for childhood in ethical-political terms and how it translates into a discussion about children’s rights.
On the other hand, this discussion becomes even more urgent in the current context of recent advances by the far-right in countries like Brazil, Chile, and Argentina, where more progressive aspects of the declaration, such as the right of children to have a religion different from that of their parents, are under strong attack. The conditions of articulation between diversity and inequality in Latin America make it imperative to expand debates on these topics, considering the interplay between theoretical frameworks, regulations, and specific case studies.
In this sense, the workshop aims to generate reflection about childhood, childhood studies and children’s rights in Latin America along three lines:
1) Conceptualization of childhood and youth in social sciences, in the world, and in Latin America
2) Contemporary issues and diversity
3) Methodology and Ethics in research/intervention with children in diverse contexts
Application form: https://forms.gle/J8K7NGBviXdaXsdq8
