Discursive Transformation and the Role of Institutions

Abstract

At the heart of the empirical case study discussed in Part II of this book lies an international treaty-making process over the course of which a traditional perspective on the child as essentially innocent, vulnerable and passive was dramatically transformed. During the negotiations to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, governmental, intergovernmental and non-state actors alike reproduced images of the child that had been dominant in international politics in the twentieth century. At the same time, they added utterly new dimensions to the identity of the child — dimensions which confounded and challenged conventional ways of perceiving children and acting towards them. Today, the document is seen as revolutionizing the understanding of the child and its rights in international politics. As will become evident from the case study, the process through which the notion of childhood in international politics was reformulated and, ultimately, modernized was characterized by various dimensions of power and exclusion that both constrained actors’ discursive practices and enabled a shift in perspective.