The current state of child rights: Reflections on World Children's Day

Rights are defined as the legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement. Childhood comprises the years from when a child is born until the age of eighteen. During this time children are meant to grow, learn, play, and be filled with a loving environment which can support their needs whether educational, nutritional, social, or medical. Sadly, not enough children are being afforded this kind of childhood and are being deprived of their rights.

A concern for me, which is not an area much talked about, is parental alienation, where children are being deprived of their relationship with one parent due to the end of relationships such as divorce. In my opinion this is a massive violation of a child’s rights.

Parental alienation often occurs when two parents end a relationship, and one parent gets alienated due to the other parent villainizing the alienated parent by brainwashing or manipulating the child.

Although it is not noticed easily and can be done subconsciously or purposely, parental alienation deprives the child of their right of having healthy relationships with both of their parents. These problems create disruption and dysfunction in the home and contributes to an unstable home environment for the child. More importantly, children that are victims of these issues can go on to suffer within their adulthood, and can develop problems such as trust issues, anger issues, and even depression.

In addition, at young ages some children are forced to take on a parental role due to the parent or parents having to work for the family resulting in them being absent from their role as a parent and this causes the children to develop at an unpreferred rate. This is known as parentification of a child.

To conclude, too often I witness children not being provided a proper childhood for the preferred development or fundamental teaching and tools a child should acquire. Children are often denied their vital needs and aren’t growing up in the stable home environments they deserve.

I think that organizations such as UNICEF can do more in advocating for children to ensure that every child is developing at the right rate, and has healthy relationships with both parents. We need to fight to ensure that every child has every right!