International legal procedures and children’s conceptual autonomy

A major contribution of the interdisciplinary field of childhood studies to social sciences has been to highlight the importance of children’s agency and the corresponding necessity to involve children in research. Several contributions in this issue illustrate the wealth of data gathered via qualitative methods, such as ethnographic fieldwork and indepth interviews that disclose children’s experiences of their everyday world. Childhood studies’ research adheres to the field’s underlying view which considers children as autonomous beings who are capable of making productive contributions towards increasing our understanding not only of their own lifeworlds but also of society as a whole. At the centre of this undertaking lies the view that children and childhood need to be studied as subjects in their own right (Leonard, 2015). The idea that children are subjects of rights has recently been underscored by the third Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) on a communications procedure, which entered into force on 14 April 2014 (United Nations, 2011). The third Protocol brings to mind the difficulties childhood researchers are faced with when considering the child as an autonomous human being. In particular, the efforts childhood researchers have deployed can inform discussions over the representation of children and over the agenda setting. The establishment of this new international legal procedure is finally also reminiscent of the importance of recognizing children’s conceptual autonomy. Under the third Protocol to the CRC, which preamble reaffirms the status of the child ‘as a subject of rights and as a human being with dignity and with evolving capacities’, children claiming to be victims of a rights violation can submit a communication to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. In case national complaints mechanisms are ineffective or non-existent, children themselves are entitled to submit a complaint. Such complaints, which are phrased in the official text as ‘communications’, may be submitted by or on behalf of an individual or group of individuals claiming to be victims of a violation by that State party of any of the rights set forth in the CRC, the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography or the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the involvement of children in armed conflict. Besides granting children who have been victims of a rights violation access to an international procedure, the drafters of this third Protocol are expecting that it will reinforce and complement national and regional mechanisms allowing children to submit complaints for violations of their rights. In a news release issued the day after the adoption of the third Protocol by the UN General Assembly, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, stated that as a consequence of this protocol, ‘Children will now be able to join the ranks of other rights-holders who are empowered to bring their complaints about human rights violations before an international body’ (Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights [OHCHR], 2011). Many advocates in the field of 609209 CHD0010.1177/0907568215609209 research-article2015