To facilitate a dynamic exchange of ideas during the workshop, we developed a series of questions for all participants to reflect on and consider when preparing their panel presentations.  Please read all the questions and come prepared with commentary for questions most relevant to your work (we have made suggestions in parentheses). You will note that some questions are specific to one or two panels of experts, while others reach across all the disciplines represented at the workshop (summarized below).

Panel 1: History, Demography and Society: Fass, Hernandez, James

Panel 2: Philosophy, & Political Science: Bohman & Rehfeld

Panel 3: Law & Advocacy: Bartholet, Bhabha & Rizzini

Panel 4: Human Development, Education, & Public Health: Hart, Torney Purta, & Carlson

Panel 5: Looking forward: Van Bueren & Mauras

The purpose of these questions is not to be prescriptive but rather to guide our discussion. If you feel an important topic or question was overlooked, we ask that you contact us and provide input. We also strongly encourage collaboration between panel members!

Presentations should be between 10 to 12 minutes long.

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A. The Convention on the Rights of the Child: The first 20 years

What were the goals that motivated the drafters of the CRC?  What were the original, underlying assumptions of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child? How do these assumptions fit with other human rights conventions that have been formulated as a consequence of the UDHR? (Van Bueren, Bhabha)

Of what historical significance is the CRC? Does the CRC represent a turning point in societal views of children? (Fass, James)

Has the ratification of the CRC resulted in or been correlated with improvements in the well-being of children around the world (some comparison of developing and developed societies would be interesting)? What impact has CRC ratification had on the development of child rights advocacy? (Mauras, James)

B. Child rights and citizenship

What do we understand by citizenship?  Which human rights provisions relate to it? (Fass)

What philosophical ideas and which bodies of scholarship are helpful to flesh out concepts in the CRC which are vague but central to the realization of child citizenship eg “best interest”? (Bohman)

Why does child citizenship raise particular questions?  Is a human rights framework helpful in parsing the ingredients of citizenship that are relevant to and elusive for children? Which rights in particular seem central? (Rehfeld)

If human rights represents an incomplete framework in formulating child citizenship (i.e. responsibilities, duties), what ideas are needed to complete it? (Bohman, Carlson)

C. Child development and citizenship

Are theories of child development adequate to describe and support notions of the child as citizen? More specifically, is the fund of knowledge on the political socialization adequate to guide national and international policy on the notion of child citizenship? (Torney Purta, Hart)

Should the application of citizenship for children be developmentally- or age-graded? (Rehfeld, Hart)

D. Applying the notion of citizenship to children

UNICEF has promoted the importance of child participation as a key element of child citizenship.  What do we make of child participation as an advocacy strategy and as a child rights requirement?  How crucial is child participation for advancing children’s rights?  Is it a necessary condition, as it is for example with indigenous or disabled people’s rights advocacy, or is it an optional strategy that might deliver gains in some contexts, but costs in others? (Carlson, Rizzini)

What bearing, if any, does the recognition of children as citizens (or rights-holders) have on the responsibilities of parents…of teachers?

How should children be involved in the various levels of governance (local, national, global)? (Rehfeld, Torney Purta)

Does advocacy for children in difficult circumstances (e.g. street children) advance the case for citizenship for all children? (Rizzini)

E. The special case of the United States

What would be the consequences for children if the United States ratified the CRC? (Bartholet, Earls)

How do demographic changes underway in the United States relate to the status of children? Do these changes bear on the desirability to ratify the CRC? (Hernandez)

What are the obstacles to ratification? (Bartholet)

F. The next twenty years

Has the child rights agenda generated a social movement? If so, who are its proponents and what are its cardinal features? Is it a movement aimed at creating the conditions for child citizenship? (Van Bueren, Mauras)

What are the future prospects for improving realization of children’s rights?  What in particular are we getting at with the “child citizenship” formulation? (Bhabha, Hernandez)

What are the merits of extending the discussion we are having at this workshop to future sessions? (Earls)

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