Global Justice for Children
(Special Issue in Journal of Global Ethics)
edited by Gottfried Schweiger (Salzburg) and Johannes Drerup (Koblenz-Landau)
Important Dates:
Important Dates:
Submission of Abstracts (500 words): 1 June 2018
Submission of Full Papers (6000-8000 words): 1 December 2018
Direct enquiries and submissions to: gottfried.schweiger@sbg.ac.at
Website: http://explore.tandfonline.com/cfp/ah/rjge-si-global-children
Children are a group that has been neglected in most theories of global justice so far, which is especially striking since children are victims of severe injustices, face several disadvantages compared to adults and nearly all indicators to measure global injustice show that they are a particular deprived group. For example, children show higher rates of poverty in most developing countries as well as in developed countries. Many children are undernourished and malnourished; they are exploited through forced labor, sexual abuse and trafficking; and they are recruited as combatants in violent conflicts. There is therefore a strong need for improvements in the lives of children around the world.
However, what global justice demands for children and how it can be achieved has not been fleshed out in detail. Certainly, there are important policy approaches available, like the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Sustainable Development Goals, and monitoring initiatives such as UNICEF’s Innocenti Report Cards. Longstanding philosophical literature on children’s rights has recently been complemented by first steps to modify existing theories of global justice, such as the Capability Approach, to fit for children. Much more reflection and research is needed nonetheless. Thus the aim of this Special Issue is to advance our understanding of the place of children in theories of global justice, both to indicate what global justice for children demands and to establish how justice can be achieved and sustained.
Children are different from adults in several important ways and in regard to, for example, their physical, cognitive and emotional development as well as their social status. But such widely held assumptions about children as particularly vulnerable and worthy of protection are not fully accounted for. Furthermore, the particularity of childhood makes it necessary to think about child-sensitive and child-specific responses to the injustices they face and how they can be implemented on a global level. Most policy measures that fit for adults often do not fit well for children, and concerns of intergenerational justice may apply to their case, as they apply for generations to come. Adult-focused moral and political theories have to be extended, modified or substantially altered in order to apply to children. This holds also for the applied field of global justice, in which philosophical theories about childhood have not had an international focus so far.
We look for contributions that will deepen and broaden understanding of the current situation of children globally, regarding both the injustices they face and how these injustices may be faced. Contributions could also further advance ongoing debates on the moral and justice-based entitlements of children and their rights (and also duties) on a global scale. We also welcome papers that analyze and scrutinize the responsibilities of actors and agents of global justice for children, and writing that helps to devise policies to improve children’s lives.
We hope to attract contributions from different theoretical approaches and backgrounds, especially including those outside of the mainstream of theories of global justice. Of particular interest are contributions that look into the intersection of disadvantages and injustices in children's lives based on their gender and sex, race, ethnicity, indigeneity or health status. Contributions from scholars based in the Global South are particularly encouraged.
Submission of Full Papers (6000-8000 words): 1 December 2018
Direct enquiries and submissions to: gottfried.schweiger@sbg.ac.at
Website: http://explore.tandfonline.com/cfp/ah/rjge-si-global-children
Children are a group that has been neglected in most theories of global justice so far, which is especially striking since children are victims of severe injustices, face several disadvantages compared to adults and nearly all indicators to measure global injustice show that they are a particular deprived group. For example, children show higher rates of poverty in most developing countries as well as in developed countries. Many children are undernourished and malnourished; they are exploited through forced labor, sexual abuse and trafficking; and they are recruited as combatants in violent conflicts. There is therefore a strong need for improvements in the lives of children around the world.
However, what global justice demands for children and how it can be achieved has not been fleshed out in detail. Certainly, there are important policy approaches available, like the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Sustainable Development Goals, and monitoring initiatives such as UNICEF’s Innocenti Report Cards. Longstanding philosophical literature on children’s rights has recently been complemented by first steps to modify existing theories of global justice, such as the Capability Approach, to fit for children. Much more reflection and research is needed nonetheless. Thus the aim of this Special Issue is to advance our understanding of the place of children in theories of global justice, both to indicate what global justice for children demands and to establish how justice can be achieved and sustained.
Children are different from adults in several important ways and in regard to, for example, their physical, cognitive and emotional development as well as their social status. But such widely held assumptions about children as particularly vulnerable and worthy of protection are not fully accounted for. Furthermore, the particularity of childhood makes it necessary to think about child-sensitive and child-specific responses to the injustices they face and how they can be implemented on a global level. Most policy measures that fit for adults often do not fit well for children, and concerns of intergenerational justice may apply to their case, as they apply for generations to come. Adult-focused moral and political theories have to be extended, modified or substantially altered in order to apply to children. This holds also for the applied field of global justice, in which philosophical theories about childhood have not had an international focus so far.
We look for contributions that will deepen and broaden understanding of the current situation of children globally, regarding both the injustices they face and how these injustices may be faced. Contributions could also further advance ongoing debates on the moral and justice-based entitlements of children and their rights (and also duties) on a global scale. We also welcome papers that analyze and scrutinize the responsibilities of actors and agents of global justice for children, and writing that helps to devise policies to improve children’s lives.
We hope to attract contributions from different theoretical approaches and backgrounds, especially including those outside of the mainstream of theories of global justice. Of particular interest are contributions that look into the intersection of disadvantages and injustices in children's lives based on their gender and sex, race, ethnicity, indigeneity or health status. Contributions from scholars based in the Global South are particularly encouraged.
