The child should know his rights

An important part of teaching children's rights can begin much earlier and where the child gets to know the social and moral world around him: in books.

Iranian Arjan Ambassador's Child and Adolescent Service (Arjan Ambassador) - Mohammad Mehdi Seyed Nasri, lawyer, university lecturer and researcher of international children's law: Children usually do not know "right" for the first time in a law book. He experiences right in a story where the character can speak up, protest an unfair decision, ask someone for help, play a game, make a choice, or even say, "I don't like this behavior." Perhaps this is why, when we talk about child rights education, we should not limit our minds only to the classroom, formal textbooks or curricula.

An important part of teaching children's rights can begin much earlier and where the child gets to know the social and moral world around him: in books. Children's rights, if left only in the text of the law, become a set of legal rules that adults know about children. But the philosophy of child rights does not stop exactly at this point. A child is not just an object of support from others; has the right

This seemingly simple difference is one of the most important conceptual changes in the contemporary view of childhood. By recognizing a set of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child recognizes the child as the owner of rights and even in Article 42 obligates governments to inform children and adults of the principles and provisions of the Convention in an appropriate and active manner.

In the child-friendly version of the convention, it is emphasized that children and adults should know the rights of children. From here, a basic question arises: if the child has the right to know his rights, how should this recognition happen? It is unlikely that a young child can be expected to read the text of an international treaty and learn concepts such as "right holder", "state obligation" or "child participation" through its legal articles. The problem of teaching children's rights, before the problem of transferring legal information, is the problem of translating legal concepts into the language of the child's experience. The child should be able to understand what the "right to privacy" means in his daily life, how the "right to be heard" manifests itself in the family and school, why the "right to play" is not just a recreational privilege and "the right to protection against violence" supports him against what behaviors. This is where the book can find a role beyond a typical educational tool.

A children's book can convey difficult legal concepts from the level of abstract words to a child's comprehensible experience. A child who sees in the story that the main character is allowed to comment on an issue that is directly related to his life, is facing a concept that in legal language can be called "the right to participate" or "the right to be heard". A child who reads a story about keeping secrets, personal information, or private photos can touch on the concept of privacy without yet being familiar with legal jargon. Such training does not necessarily occur with a sentence such as "under such and such article, you have such a right"; Sometimes a good story can make a legal concept fit in the child's mind and become part of his understanding of his relationship with others. Of course, this view is not just a literary impression.

International experiences in the field of children's rights education also show that legal education can be started from a very young age and with age-appropriate methods. A UNICEF study on the education of children's rights between the ages of zero and six emphasizes that even very young children can learn the language of law in everyday situations using creative and age-appropriate methods and gradually understand concepts such as those who have the right and are responsible for the implementation of the right. This point is very important for our cultural and publishing system. If we accept that the education of children's rights should start from the first years of life, it can no longer be the responsibility of the school or formal educational institutions. Family, library, author, illustrator, publisher, educator and media are also part of this process. The children's book has a special place in this, because unlike many formal educations, it is not necessarily associated with the feeling of "studying".

A child may open a book for fun, but within the same story encounter the concept of justice, choice, dignity, responsibility, difference, discrimination, or the right to protest. Of course, we must be careful of an important error here. Not every children's book is meant to be a law textbook.

If the author were to explain an article of the Convention on the Rights of the Child on every page of the story, the result would probably be neither good literature nor effective legal education. A child needs a story, not a simplistic legal pamphlet. The problem is to introduce a "child's rights perspective" into children's literature, not to transform the literature into the text of the law. The difference between these two views is very serious.

At first glance, the story is still a story, it has characters, conflicts, emotions and carries the child with it, but in its fictional world, the child is not a silent and merely obedient being. A child's personality can ask questions, disagree, make mistakes, make decisions, ask for help, and comment on matters related to him. In this way, the book conveys the culture of children's rights not by teaching directly and rhetorically, but by representing a healthy relationship between the child and the world around him. This issue is directly related to one of the most important principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, i.e. the child's right to be heard.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child has stated in General Interpretation No. 12 that children who are able to form their own views have the right to freely express their views on all matters affecting their lives, and their views should be taken into account in accordance with their age and maturity. The Committee also considers the right to be heard as part of the child's legal status as a "subject of rights", not merely as a person to be supported by adults. Therefore, a book that allows the child to hear the voice of the child's personality has not only produced a cultural product; In the best case, it has formed a part of the legal socialization process of the child.

On the other hand, Article 29 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child does not consider education to be merely the transfer of information or learning skills. The goal of education should be the development of the child's personality, talents and abilities, as well as the development of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. In this framework, education should prepare the child for a responsible life in a free society, along with understanding, peace, tolerance and equality. So, if we consider the education of children's rights as part of the philosophy of education, the book is no longer a secondary tool in this direction.

In Iran, this discussion is not unimportant from a legal point of view. The Islamic Republic of Iran joined the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1373, and this Convention became effective for Iran on August 12, 1994; Iran, of course, when approving it, declared the right of condition regarding the regulations that are in conflict with Islamic laws and domestic laws. Regardless of the legal debates related to the scope and effects of this conditional right, the important principle is that children's rights in Iran cannot remain only at the level of international documents or legal texts. The realization of rights requires the transformation of these concepts into public culture, and public culture cannot be formed without education.

Maybe one of our serious shortcomings is here. We talk a lot about the child, we produce books for the child, we discuss about the upbringing of the child, and we make laws to protect the child; But we rarely ask the child himself if he knows what rights he has and if he can recognize it in the situation of violation of the right. This question has become more important especially nowadays.

A child who is in cyberspace should know that his image belongs to his privacy. A child who faces violence must be able to understand that violence is not a natural part of upbringing. A child who feels like his opinion doesn't count at school needs to know that being heard isn't just a favor from an adult. A child who faces discrimination must be able to understand the difference between "being different" and "being discriminated against." All these are part of legal literacy of children before they are complex legal issues.

From this point of view, my suggestion is not to produce more books with the title "Child's Rights"; Although the existence of such works is also necessary. The more important issue is that children's literature, along with entertainment and nurturing imagination, gradually becomes one of the natural platforms for teaching children's rights.

Publishers can design collections suitable for different age groups; Writers can turn children's real life situations into stories; Illustrators can make abstract concepts visible, and libraries can create spaces for conversations about children's rights. One can even go a step further and not write the "Book of Children's Rights" just for the child.

A good book can address children, parents, educators and teachers at the same time. Beside the story, ask questions for discussion; Not test questions, but questions like: "What would you do if you were in this character's place?", "Did he have the right to say no?", "Who should you listen to?" or "How would you feel if someone posted your picture without permission?" Such dialogue turns the child from a passive reader to a participant.

Education of children's rights is successful when the child can find rights in his own life. If the book can make this happen, it is no longer just a book about children; It is a book to empower children. Perhaps it is necessary to distance ourselves from the question of "Have we published a book about children's rights?" in the field of cultural policy and publishing. And raise a more important question: "Have our children learned that they have rights through books?" The difference between these two questions is the difference between producing a book title and building a culture. The culture of children's rights starts from the place where the child can find language about himself, his life and his relationship with others.

The book is one of the first places where this language can be given to the child. If a child learns from the first years of life that his body, his voice, his identity, his time, his play, his education, his privacy and his opinion have legal and human value, in adulthood we will face a citizen who knows his rights and the rights of others better. Therefore, the children's book should not be considered only as a means to fill free time or even increase reading skills.

The book can be one of the first schools of children's rights; A school where the child learns the meaning of "I have the right" not from behind the law desk, but from stories and experience. And perhaps this short sentence is one of the most important lessons that our culture has to teach a child: "You are not just someone who needs to be taken care of; You are a human being who has rights."

An important part of teaching children's rights can begin much earlier and where the child gets to know the social and moral world around him: in books.

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