The place of the child in humanitarian action and communication: moving away from the cliché of childhood as icon (original) (raw)
In philosophy, historically, much attention has been given to the central question of philosophical anthropology, namely, ‘what constitutes a human being?’. However, it seems that the answers to this question are in fact answers to the question ‘what constitutes the adult human being?’, or even ‘what constitutes the adult, male human being?’. In discussing this question, an important group of human beings has often been left out, which currently consists of more than 25% of the world’s population, and this is precisely the group on which I want to focus: children. The uncertainty on the meaning of the concept of childhood is reflected in international law. For example in the 1989 Conventions on the Rights of the Child,“a child” is defined as every human being below the age of eighteen years, ‘unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier’ (article 1). The main question for the research is ‘What is the meaning of the concept of childhood and how does it relate to children’s rights?’. It includes an analysis of the concept of childhood, based on mainly philosophical literature and field research. The second chapter focusses on the meaning of childhood in relation to international children's rights.