Children constitute a political constituency constitutionally unable to enforce their own rights
Evidence
The gap is not merely a matter of insufficient implementation. It is a structural feature of the relationship between children and adult institutions. Children are, by definition, non-voters. They do not contribute to political campaigns. They do not lobby. They do not write letters to the editor. They are, in the vocabulary of political science, a constituency without political power. Article 12 is an attempt to partially compensate for this power deficit by creating a right that adults must respect even though children cannot enforce it. But a right that depends on the goodwill of those against whom it is exercised is a right with limited practical force. — , The Rod and the Child, 10130
Categorization
- SEED: Angle: an essay on how every unenforceable right (children, migrants, the institutionalized) reduces to a plea for adult goodwill.
- XREF: connects to: An infant’s interest in nutrition constitutes a right against parents — , The Rod and the Child: A Global History…, 7678; Children’s rights must be balanced against parental religious liberty. — , The Rod and the Child: A Global History…, 9370; Compulsory school attendance constitutes state custody over children. — , The Rod and the Child: A Global History…, 9430 (+7 more)
Related
- Written constitutional rights fail when the community collectively opposes them (similarity 0.79)
- Democratic referendums exclude the very population child-protection laws protect. (similarity 0.79)
- Children’s rights must be balanced against parental religious liberty. (similarity 0.79)
Broader Connections
- Written constitutional rights fail when the community collectively opposes them
#corroborates(0.80) - South African children’s constitutional right to be free from violence overrides parental corporal punishment.
#exemplifies(0.70) — , The Rod and the Child, 4769 - Childhood conviction can collide with adult authority over a factual impossibility
#corroborates(0.70) — Karl Ove Knausgaard, A Death in the Family, 1666 - Children spontaneously articulate the logical incoherence of legalized adult violence against them
#exemplifies(0.65) — , The Rod and the Child, 10953 - Constitutional limits on supreme legislation operate through legal disabilities rather than duties
#expands(0.60) — HLA Hart, The Concept of Law (Clarendon Law…, 261