Discursive Practices within the UN and the Transformation of a Global Childhood Paradigm

Abstract

If one looks at the second Polish proposal — which set the agenda for discussion — and the text of the final Convention that was adopted in 1989, it is clear that the Polish draft changed significantly during the ten years of negotiations. Not only was the wording of suggested articles altered, but several new items were also added to the catalogue of children’s rights. Accordingly, while the second Polish proposal was the main reference point for discursive interaction, the initiation phase for the drafting analysed in the previous chapter still left considerable room for the insertion of new ideas, new knowledge, frameworks and a variety of international debates. Considering the changing identity of the child in international politics, even the discussion about the very title of the Convention, which re-emerged at several points of the drafting, hinted at a shift in perspective. There were two aspects of the Convention’s title that figured in the drafters’ discussions: (1) The rights-holder covered by the Convention: should it address ‘children’ as a group or the ‘child’ as an individual?¹ (2) The terminology used for the nature of rights contained in the possible Convention. Concerning the first question, the title of the Convention as well as the discussions referring to it reveal that most drafters pleaded in favour of ‘the child’ in singular, placing the child as an individual at the forefront, rather than submerging him or her in the vast totality of children.