By Nada Abu
Sbeih
The Prince Al Hussein Bin Abdullah II School of International
Studies and the Center for Strategic Studies hosted Dr. Jason Hart – a social anthropologist from the University of Bath and a John Willis Teaching Award winner – on Tuesday November 21st. He delivered a lecture
titled, “Children’s Rights: History, Theory, and the Context of Mass
Displacement,” to a packed room of 120 attendees. The event was co-organized by
Dr. Shadaab Rahemtulla and Dr. Sara Ababneh.
Much of Dr. Hart’s work is centered around people who live on the
margins of society, especially young people and children. He explores this theme in the context of the Middle East, particularly in
terms of occupied Palestine and Jordan.
The lecture addressed the issue of children’s rights in the Middle
East; the emergence and development of children’s rights since the eighteenth
century; and the impact of war on children and their rights.
The emergence of children’s rights, as a discourse, was closely
tied to the atrocities of war and its aftermath, most notably World War I. ‘Children
are victims of collective punishment,’ Dr. Hart stated. Although the state started to relate to
children since the mid-eighteenth century, he stressed that their rights are
not only a government’s responsibility, but also a universal concern. However, the
full emergence of the rights of the child did not come about until the signing
and ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) of 1989
by all member states except the US.
Focusing on one aspect of the convention which is education, Dr. Hart
emphasized that securing children’s rights in this area is not simply about
changing attitudes, mindsets, and behaviors, but also, and more significantly, about
states changing the material, socioeconomic challenges that face everyday
people, particularly the poor. He critiqued an aspect of the convention which stated
that the hosting country should primarily
shoulder the burden or responsibility of protecting the rights of refugees, of
which children’s rights are part and parcel. For him, this is problematic,
since many Western governments and their imperial interventions have been key
causes for such mass displacement in the first place. He also critiqued how the
convention overlooks the importance of considering the reality of the hosting
country. Many hosting countries, such as Jordan, are already poor. That is to
say, hosting countries themselves face many challenges in protecting refugee children’s
rights (not to mention the rights of their own child citizenry) and hence other
bodies need to also shoulder the burden, such as Western governments, the
countries of origin, UN bodies, and international organizations.
Another problem that did not escape his notice was the corruption
of many big, corporate donors such as IKEA and Facebook, which happily donate
to children’s rights organizations – and benefit from the positive publicity of
doing so – while, at the same time, having a history of tax avoidance. This
means that states will have significantly fewer resources to fund key
institutions that affect children, such as education (i.e.: providing quality teacher
training and equipping schools with adequate facilities). Advocating and safeguarding
children’s rights, therefore, is not an isolated, single-issue project, but rather
requires thinking critically, broadly, and politically about children and their
contexts.