A Comparative Study on the Level of Realizing Children’s Rights. : A Focus on Rich Countries Sunsuk Kim Korea National University of Transportation SPA Conference 2014

Background

 There are some difficulties in measuring children’s rights.  Some scholars raised the issue of the gaps which exist between rights in theory and rights in practice.

Conceptual Background Economic rights

 More focused on rich countries known as the OECD.  Central to this paper are two ideas as follows 1-1. Construct CRI 1-2. Compare the realisation of children’s rights in rich countries 2. Make clear the relationship of national economic status, ratification of CRC and child subjective well-being with realising children’s rights.

Constructing the Children’s Rights Index DomainIndicatorData source HEALTH (survival /civil) Vaccination rates (measles) OECD (2007), Health at a Glance. Low birth weight OECD (2007), Health at a Glance. WELFARE (protections / economic) Child maltreatment WHO (2010), WHO Mortality Database. Children in poor homes OECD Income Distribution database, developed for OECD (2008b), Growing Unequal EDUCATION ( development /social) Entry rates at the tertiary level OECD(2011), Education at a Glance. Educational deprivation OECD Programme for International Student Assessment database 2006 (OECD/PISA, 2008).

Method  Make an index of child rights for health, welfare and education  Select 2-3 indicators in each section  10 indicators  10 Indicators -> Z-Score -> Mean -> Conversion Scores (mean: 100, SD: 10)

The Score of CRI

Correlation with indicators Vaccination Low birth weight Infant mortality Public health spending Child abuse Child poverty Family benefits Tertiary entry rate Deficiency of educational environ- ment Public education expendi- ture Vaccination * Low birth weight * *-.499**-.402*.534**-.468* Infant mortality *1-.541**.483**.509** **-.211 Public health spending ** *.382* **.403* Child abuse ** * *-.079 Child poverty *.509**-.391* ** **-.342 Family benefits ** *-.414*-.589** *.564** Tertiary entry rate * * Deficiency of educational environment **.817**-.577**.389*.505**-.378* Public education expenditure -.421*-.468* * **.385*-.2221

National economic status and CRI - Relationship between GDP per capita(2005) and CRI

National economic status and CRI - Relationship between economic inequality and CRI

Treaties Ratified and CRI - Ratification of CRC

Treaties Ratified and CRI - Ratification of HCCP

SWB and CRI

Discussion  At the bottom of the countries in CRI have some unique patterns. -These countries show rather low points in welfare domain. -A higher score in welfare domain tends to correlate with a higher rank in CRI in 10 of top countries.  Most countries show similar scores in each domain(present state, coverage, and government expenditure).  The data related to the economic condition such as GDP and GINI, suggest that economic inequality is more related to CRI than the economic situation itself within countries.

Discussion  Not find a positive relationship between CRI and the treaty ratification of CRC -a positive tendency in the ratification of HCCP.  Generally, higher level of CRI tends to equate to a higher level of SWE. - But there is a contradiction in some countries.

Limitation of the study  Limited domain of child rights  In spite of the willingness and freedom of children, we regards child rights as guard not children themselves but adults.  The limitation of making index for child rights.

Thank You ~