Protection Of Post-quake Children's Rights

On August 29, 1991 China signed the "Convention on the Rights of the Child", issued the "Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Minors"in the same year, then and developed country programs. However, until now, when the "Covenant" has been passed 20 years, children's rights are in an awkward position for they receive attention in theory, but actually they are still seriously neglected in practice. After the 5.12 Wenchuan earthquake, in order to protect the rights of children, the State Council Working Committee Office, UNICEF and other partners in joint projects in China set up 40 Children Friendly Space (hereinafter referred to as "Home") in China in badly hit disaster areas in Sichuan, to protect all kinds of rights of children. However he author found out that infringement of children's rights may also occur in "Home". With the favorable conditions of personal involvement in "Home" project, the author, taking"Home" as the research object, tries to understand the current situation of the protection on children's rights after the earthquake and offers some suggestions on protecting children's rights by summing up experience and defect.On the basis of rerising those relective documents, combined with actual conditions of the "Home", the author determines the actual situation of "Home" in terms of the protection of the children's rights from four dimensions, using observation, interview, physical analysis and other research methods.The first part is to study different stages of development in longitudital perspective. Detailed analysis covers the experience and defect of "Home" in terms of protection of children's rights in emergency phase, reconstruction phase and transition phase.The second analysis dimension is to study the different types of"Home"from the horizontal angle. According to the different injor force, 40 "Home" can be divided into three categories: within the school model relying on the school; independent operation mode relying on the community; joint operation mode relying on NGO. For each type of"Home", the author firstly introduces the profile; then analyzes the typical case study; finally summarizes the advantages and disadvantages of children's rights protection in these models and seek to find reasons for improvement.The third dimension is an in-depth study from the perspective of fundamental rights. The author classifies the children's participation in "Home", that is, passive participation, active participation and self-organization participation, and makes an analysis on the protection status of the children's right to participate.Finally, the author investigates from the perspective of children--- an important party to "Home"; the author interviewed more than 25 children from different "Home" about children's rights and their views on "Home" in order to gain the children's understanding of children's rights and the need for Home's further development.Based on a large amount of Investigation and summary of experience, the author offers suggestions on the protection of the children's rights after the disaster: establish the concept of right protection; educate adults and children on the right protection; organize post-quake protection of children's rights step-by-step and by stages, involving multi-sectors and multi-organizations in order to build children's friendly home into a bastion of protecting children's rights.