TY - CHAP

T1 - Defining children’s rights to work and care in Sub-Saharan Africa

T2 - Tensions and challenges in policy and practice

AU - Evans, Ruth

AU - Skovdal, Morten

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2016.

PY - 2016/1/1

Y1 - 2016/1/1

N2 - This chapter explores the spatialities of children’s rights through a focus on how children’s paid and unpaid work in sub-Saharan Africa intersects with wider debates about child labor, child domestic work, and young caregiving. Several tensions surround the universalist and individualistic nature of the rights discourse in the context of sub-Saharan Africa, and policymakers, practitioners, children, and community members have emphasized children’s responsibilities to their families and communities, as well as their rights. The limitations of ILO definitions of child labor and child domestic work and UNCRC concerns about “hazardous” and “harmful” work are highlighted through examining the situation of children providing unpaid domestic and care support to family members in the private space of their own or a relative’s home. Differing perspectives toward young caregiving have been adopted to date by policymakers and practitioners in East Africa, ranging from a child labor/child protection/abolitionist approach to a “young carer”/child-centered rights perspective. These diff ring perspectives influence the level and nature of support and resources that children involved in care work may be able to access. A contextual, multi-sectorial approach to young caregiving is needed that seeks to understand children’s, family members’, and community members’ perceptions of what constitutes inappropriate caring responsibilities within particular cultural contexts and how these should best be alleviated.

AB - This chapter explores the spatialities of children’s rights through a focus on how children’s paid and unpaid work in sub-Saharan Africa intersects with wider debates about child labor, child domestic work, and young caregiving. Several tensions surround the universalist and individualistic nature of the rights discourse in the context of sub-Saharan Africa, and policymakers, practitioners, children, and community members have emphasized children’s responsibilities to their families and communities, as well as their rights. The limitations of ILO definitions of child labor and child domestic work and UNCRC concerns about “hazardous” and “harmful” work are highlighted through examining the situation of children providing unpaid domestic and care support to family members in the private space of their own or a relative’s home. Differing perspectives toward young caregiving have been adopted to date by policymakers and practitioners in East Africa, ranging from a child labor/child protection/abolitionist approach to a “young carer”/child-centered rights perspective. These diff ring perspectives influence the level and nature of support and resources that children involved in care work may be able to access. A contextual, multi-sectorial approach to young caregiving is needed that seeks to understand children’s, family members’, and community members’ perceptions of what constitutes inappropriate caring responsibilities within particular cultural contexts and how these should best be alleviated.

KW - Care work and caregiving

KW - Child domestic labor

KW - Child labor

KW - Children’s rights

KW - Policy and practice

KW - Sub-Saharan Africa

KW - Young carers

U2 - 10.1007/978-981-4585-57-6_12

DO - 10.1007/978-981-4585-57-6_12

M3 - Book chapter

AN - SCOPUS:84957655300

SN - 9789814585569

SP - 3

EP - 20

BT - Politics, Citizenship and Rights

A2 - null, Kirsi Pauliina Kallio

A2 - null, Sarah Mills

A2 - null, Tracey Skelton

PB - Springer

CY - Singapore

ER -