Child Protection and Rights: A Comprehensive Guide
Foster Care
Foster care is the temporary placement of a minor with a person or household. Its purpose is to provide the child with a family environment and temporarily supplement their own family’s care.
Adoption
Adoption is a legal process by which a court establishes a parent-child relationship between adoptive parents and an adopted child. This process severs the legal ties between the adoptee and their previous family. Adoption is generally irrevocable, but may be terminated within two years under specific circumstances that are not detrimental to the child, such as if requested by a parent who did not give consent or was not heard as provided by law.
Care Assistance
Care assistance focuses on providing necessary aid and meeting the needs of children who cannot do so themselves.
Informal Education or Social Intervention
Informal education or social intervention encompasses activities that are both educational and social. These activities take place outside of formal educational institutions and are often carried out by community members to address the needs of children and families that are not fully met by the formal education system. Examples include hospital schools, playgroups, and libraries.
Formal Education or Educational Intervention
Formal education or educational intervention takes place within the established education system. These programs, which may be mandatory or optional, are characterized by structured educational levels, specific locations, legally defined timeframes, and the right to official certification.
Behaviorism
Behaviorism posits that behavior is initiated by both external and internal stimuli. Learning and habits can modify behavior. Extrinsic motivation is driven by external factors unrelated to the learning situation, such as reward systems.
Cognitivism
Cognitivism suggests that people do not automatically respond to external events. Intrinsic motivation stems from the satisfaction of learning or accomplishment, such as making choices, decisions, and plans.
Convention
A convention is a legally binding agreement between states, similar to a pact or treaty.
Agreement
An agreement is synonymous with a convention. International agreements are often promoted by the International Labour Organization (ILO), a specialized agency focused on international rights and working conditions, involving governments, businesses, and workers.
Convention on the Rights of the Child
Adopted on November 20, 1989, and effective in Spain since 1991, the Convention on the Rights of the Child is a set of standards and rules that prioritize children’s role in building a just, respectful, and peaceful world. It contains 54 articles and focuses on four categories of rights: protection from harmful influences, abuse, or exploitation; survival and full development; full participation in family, cultural, and social life.
Declaration
A declaration is a document outlining a set of rights, but it is not legally binding on the state.
Geneva Declaration
Adopted on September 5, 1924, the Geneva Declaration of the Rights of the Child was the first declaration of its kind, emphasizing the need for special care and protection for abandoned children. It focused on the right to moral, physical, and mental development, including care for hungry, sick, marginalized, orphaned, and abandoned children. It summarized care and intervention, the prohibition of exploitation, and the right to education.
Declaration of Human Rights
Adopted on December 10, 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights emphasizes the protection of fundamental human rights for all members of the human family as the foundation of freedom, peace, equality, and justice. Article 25.2 specifically addresses children’s rights, stating that motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance, and all children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.
Declaration of the Rights of the Child (1959)
Signed on November 20, 1959, the Declaration of the Rights of the Child focuses on child welfare and outlines ten rights: equality, protection, identity and nationality, a healthy lifestyle, integration and love, education and play, recovery, solidarity, and assistance.
Formal Education
Formal education is provided within the education system and may be mandatory or non-mandatory, ranging from kindergarten to university. It is structured by educational levels, taught in schools within legally defined timeframes, and leads to official certification.
Non-Formal Education
Non-formal education encompasses organized educational activities outside the formal school system. It is systematic and planned to achieve predefined objectives and can be delivered in various locations.
Emancipation
Emancipation occurs when a young person is no longer under legal guardianship, typically upon reaching the age of majority. Spanish law allows for emancipation through marriage, reaching the age of seventeen, or by judicial decision.
Guardianship
Guardianship is the temporary placement of a child who is without a home. The child may be placed in an institution or with a family to ensure their basic needs are met, including care, food, education, and comprehensive training.