Search results

Various problems in the field of children's rights require governments in all countries to take urgent action to establish preventive mechanisms. In this respect, governments are increasingly organising private specialised units on sensitive issues concerning children's rights, which hopefully may prevent further abuse of children. The existence of structures specialising in children's rights is extremely necessary in terms of empowering children to express their problems and wishes. In this study, the duties and functions of the Children's Ombudsman are discussed using examples from different countries.

Children are people's gateway to the future; they are 30.3% of the world's population. Childhood is a stage that has a great impact on adulthood and children being healthy individuals. For this reason, child poverty and childhood conditions are very important for individual and community life. Cities are places where people live, and more than 50% of the world's population lives there. In the cities, whose numbers and sizes have increased over time, the crimes committed have also increased and diversified. For this reason, it has become increasingly difficult to provide urban security today. The aim of this study is to show the relationship between child poverty and urban safety, by carrying out an overview of the global perspective and examining the case of Turkey.

Globalisation, which is founded on an axis of dissemination and change, has economic, social, cultural and political dimensions. Since the rise of capitalism in the 1800s, the concept of childhood has evolved along with the shifting conception of man in globalisation. This shift can be investigated by looking at three pillars: (1) shifting play patterns, (2) child Labour and (3) violence towards children are all issues that need to be addressed. Play has been one of the most important phenomena that people have created for themselves throughout history. Toys that have grown more common and standardised as a result of globalisation are now available to children from various cultures all over the world and are designed to meet specific criteria. It is common knowledge that children have worked to aid their families' economies since they were young, and that child Labour is crucial for the family, village and clan. However, as a result of the commodification of Labour during the industrialisation process and major monopolies' quest for cheap Labour during the globalisation process, children were forced to work in exceedingly terrible conditions for extremely low wages. In the globalisation process, child pornography, the employment of girls and boys as sex workers and child abuse have become more frequent. Aside from child sexual assault, the rise in child murders, the fact that children are the most susceptible and easy targets for organised crime and the growing number of wars around the world illustrate the growing violence that children are exposed to as a result of globalisation. Computer games, which are often centred on war and involve heavy themes of violence, normalise and internalise violence in youngsters.

This chapter aims to evaluate the problem of child labour exploitation in the world. In this framework, the definition of the concept, the causes, the chronology of global regulations on the topic, the risks that child labourers face are given. The basic result of the chapter is the recognition of the importance of the relationship between child labour and economic conditions. Accordingly, when the wealth levels of countries increase, the number of child labourer decreases.

Parents are children's first line of protection. However, millions of children all over the world experience a lack of parental care. The reasons for this separation are varied, such as poverty, being abused and neglected, the death of parents, being abandoned, trafficking, migration, living on the street, being displaced or health issues. From the child's rights perspective, parental care is a priority for a child's best interest. In this respect, most countries have social protection policies to support families with their children. When parental care is not possible, states generally take responsibility by providing appropriate services, including residential care, kinship care, foster care, other forms of family-based care or adoption. Within this framework, this study aims to provide an overview of the world's children who lack parental care in the light of the theoretical background and the latest research.

In the Bollywood film Crow's Egg (Manikandan, 2015), two Indian children eat crow eggs that they collect from trees (taking three out of four eggs and leaving one with the mother crow) because they cannot afford chicken eggs. Because their father is in prison, the children make money by selling pieces of coal that fall off trains to support their working mother. Interestingly, the film shows no images of school in the lives of the two children, aged about seven and 10, and their friends next to them. Unfortunately, there are millions of children in the world who have no room for school in their lives, and they are not just numbers, they are individuals.

Recent advances in digital technologies and their accessibility with ease have become indispensable for children. In contrast to expectations and many regulations, children use digital technologies effectively in many areas from an early age. Digital technologies and digital media, commonly used in entertainment, learning and everyday activities, cover several user-induced problems and challenges. These uses are user-based, not technology-based, which highlights conscious, controlled and time-limited applications that are suitable for their developmental levels. On the other hand, technology has many positive effects, such as providing children with efficient and rich learning opportunities, providing concrete experiences, and increasing their academic success and interest. Also, digital technologies are frequently preferred in learning environments due to the visual preparation of technology-supported materials, addressing more than one sensory organ at the same time, and the inclusion of interaction components. However, in this process, the selection and use of current technologies and software suitable for children's development levels and the factors that need to be considered in the process of use are important to make the learning process effective.

Despite the fact that the rights of the child began to be discussed in the nineteenth century, they came to the fore after the world wars in the twentieth century. Children, who were considered to belong to their fathers during the agricultural capitalism period before the Industrial Revolution, were also used for domestic labour. Children began to break away from their homes with the Industrial Revolution, after this long period of almost no rights. During this period, child labour, which is cheaper than adult labour and seen as the lever of capitalist accumulation, has become an important part of production. In the second half of the nineteenth century, through the 1920s, called the ‘child rescue age’, compulsory education came to the fore as a way of disciplining children. The perception that children are a group that needs to be protected as a separate category and not as a property reveals the necessity to regulate their working conditions and to ensure their rights. In this regard, the Geneva Declaration of the Rights of the Child realised the first real progress in 1924. Then, after the Second World War, which brought children's rights to almost a halt, the Declaration of Rights of the Child was signed in 1959. Both of the declarations rely heavily on protection and care services. The touchstone of the development of child rights is the Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 20 November 1989. The Convention became the human rights convention that was approved by the largest number of countries ever. It is the only human rights convention that uniquely combines civil, political, social, cultural, and human rights. Despite all these developments, children continue not to be regarded as subjects and to be exploited in the production of surplus value as the reserve army of labour.