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Political and Legal Effects of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Latin American Countries

The Well-Being, Peer Cultures and Rights of Children

ISBN: 978-1-78052-074-2, eISBN: 978-1-78052-075-9

Publication date: 5 August 2011

Abstract

Purpose – This chapter investigates the possibilities and limits for effectuating the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in Latin American countries.

Methods – The following dimensions are questioned: (a) the monitoring process of the CRC; (b) the contrast between the social organization of children's rights in the National State and the international pressures to incorporate foreign law into the national legislation; (c) the role of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the processes of child rights violations.

Findings – The main conclusion is that the possibilities of effectuating international treaties on human rights are different at three scales. Within international organizations (specifically within the United Nations and its Committees on Human Rights), it is possible to create conventions and monitor them, making use of the reports. At the nation-state scale, it is possible to formally incorporate the rights of the foreign law into national constitutions, but the punishment related to the violations of these rights will depend on the hierarchical relationship between domestic and foreign law. At the interregional scale, one can observe the effective actions of the juridical institutions (specifically of the Commission and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights) to punish and compensate the victims that suffered violations of the rights guaranteed by international treaties.

Keywords

Citation

Guiomar da Cunha Frota, M. (2011), "Political and Legal Effects of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Latin American Countries", Bass, L.E. and Kinney, D.A. (Ed.) The Well-Being, Peer Cultures and Rights of Children (Sociological Studies of Children and Youth, Vol. 14), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 307-323. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1537-4661(2011)0000014018

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2011, Emerald Group Publishing Limited