Kids Are People Too: Children’s Rights and Personhood in the Global West

FAIN: FT-285930-22

Julia Emilia Rodriguez
University of New Hampshire (Durham, NH 03824-2620)

Archival research and writing a chapter on children’s rights and the concept of personhood in Europe and the Americas.

In Europe and the Americas, personhood is typically understood as the enjoyment of individual rights, agency, and bodily autonomy. If so, then when did children become people? This book project explores the elaboration, transformation, and application of key concepts underpinning children’s rights as well as the disciplines, practices, and political movements that shaped them but delivered mixed outcomes for children and youth globally. I trace each rights concept back to six national sites (Uruguay; Argentina; Sweden; Italy; Canada; and the USA) from about 1890, and also examine the role of the United Nations and its agencies as influential bodies attending to children’s wellbeing and rights.