Protective and Supportive Injunctions for Children Exposed to Sexual Abuse: The First Data from Turkey.

Child sexual abuse (CSA) requires multidisciplinary approach by forensic, social, and medical services, thus Child Advocacy Centers (CACs) have been established to evaluate CSA cases in Turkey. At CACs the social needs of children are assessed by social workers. Protective and supportive injunctions (PSIs) are considered at each step of evaluation and are proposed to child courts. This study aimed to evaluate PSIs at a local CAC, which is one of the leading CACs in Turkey. The study group consisted of children and adolescents exposed to CSA admitted to Izmir CAC between April 2014 and April 2015. Socio-demographic characteristics, social investigation reports, psychiatric reports, and proposed PSIs were evaluated. The rate of social investigation necessity was 28.3% (n = 113), and the rate of being proposed for at least one PSI was 24.3% (n = 97). The most common proposed injunctions were maintenance care injunctions (n = 47; 48%) and counseling injunctions (n = 46; 47%). The rate of proposed PSIs was significantly higher in adolescents, incest cases and abuse types including penetration than in the other groups. This is the first study to evaluate PSIs in the child protection system. Our results provide data about the risk groups that need PSIs among the victims of CSA cases.

Reframing child rights to effect policy change.

BACKGROUND: Much of the discourse surrounding children's advocacy in the United States relies on a rights-based approach. We argue that this approach has limitations that impede progress in advancing children's well-being. PURPOSE: The purpose of this article is to explain alternatives to a rights-based approach in advocating for children, such as developmental, economic, capabilities, and mutualism frameworks. METHODS: Our analysis is based on the independent work of two separate university-based groups studying children's rights; the authors were each members of one of the groups and subsequently integrated their findings for this article. DISCUSSION: US policies for children, especially in the domains of health and education, depict an unevenness that results in many children failing to receive certain critical services and benefits. Relying on a rights-based approach to correct these disparities and inequities is contentious and has yet to sufficiently change state and federal policies or improve children's health outcomes. Other approaches are needed to advance children's well-being. CONCLUSION: Nurses individually and collectively need to be mindful of the pitfalls of a rights-based approach and use other frameworks in advocating for children and youth.

Protection of children's rights in the health care: problems and legal issues.

OBJECTIVE: Introduction: Among all categories of patients children (minors) must be protected first. It is caused so by the specificity of the treatment, their vulnerability, the need of further protection and supervision. Providing of medical care services for children are often connected with the risks of the process of treatment, and of the drug usage. The aim: To identify the problems associated with the protection of the rights of minors and, on the basis of this, the basic guarantees of their rights, as well as mark the trends in the practice of ECHR. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Materials and Methods: The study is based on its own theoretical and empirical basis. The theoretical basis include scientific articles, expert reviews of legislation and communications of non-governmental organisations, and empirical - decisions of the ECHR, international legal acts and directives of the EU. RESULTS: Results: The main violations of the rights of minor children include the following: - legal representatives of children do not take to the account their interests (refusal of medical intervention or the choice of certain method of interference); - medical intervention under the influence of coercion; - providing of unwarranted medical care without the corresponding testimony; - providing of inadequate medical care: when the patient was only examined and ineffective treatment was prescribed, and others. As for mentally ill children, the following rights are usually violated: for life, for a fair trial. It has been proved that defects in the provision of health care are often predetermined by the poor state logistics of hospitals, lack of financing and appropriate pediatric medicines, outdated methods of treatment, and incompetence of some doctors. CONCLUSION: Conclusions: From the point of view of protecting the rights of minors, the rights of children in medicine can be classified into universal and special. The rights correspond not only to the corresponding duties of medical staff, but also of their parents (legal representatives). Violations of their rights are usually related to improper representation of the interests of children and disadvantages of providing medical services (defects in their provision), in particular, regarding the treatment of mentally ill, as well as in clinical trials. It has been proven that the practice of the ECHR on the protection of the rights of the child in the field of health is of particular importance.

Using international human rights law to improve child health in low-income countries: a framework for healthcare professionals.

BACKGROUND: The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights states that the right to health is closely related to, and dependent upon, the realization of other human rights, including the right to food, water, education and shelter which are important determinants of health. Children's healthcare workers in low income settings may spend the majority of their professional lives trying to mitigate deficiencies of these rights but have little influence over them. In order to advocate successfully at a local level, we should be aware of the proportion of children living in our catchment population who do not have access to their basic rights. In order to carry out a rights audit, a framework within which healthcare workers could play their part is required, as is an agreed minimum core of rights, a timeframe and a set of indicators. DISCUSSION: A framework to assess how well states and their developmental partners are adhering to human rights principles is discussed, including the role that a healthcare worker might optimally play. A minimum core of economic and social rights seeks to establish a legal minimum set of protections, which should be available with immediate effect and applicable to all nations despite very different resources. Minimum core rights and the impact that progressive realisation may have had on the right to health is discussed, including what they should include from the perspective of children's health. A set of absolute rights are suggested, based on physiological needs and aligned with the corresponding articles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The development indicators which are likely to be used to monitor progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals is suggested as a way to monitor rights. We consider the ways in which the healthcare worker could use a rights audit to advocate with, and for their community. These audits could achieve several objectives. They may legitimise healthcare workers' interests in the determinants of health and, as they are often highly respected by their community, this may facilitate them to be agents for change at a local level. This may raise awareness on basic human rights and their importance to health and contribute to a needed change in mind-set from one of development needs to absolute rights. The results may catalyse colleagues to analyse further the upstream reasons why children, and the families in which they live, are not having their rights met.

Child development in developing countries: child rights and policy implications.

The Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey was used to provide information on feeding practices, caregiving, discipline and violence, and the home environment for young children across 28 countries. The findings from the series of studies in this Special Section are the first of their kind because they provide information on the most proximal context for development of the youngest children in the majority world using one of the only data sets to study these contexts across countries. Using the framework of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, in particular the Rights to Survival, Development and Protection, findings are explained with implications for international and national-level social policies. Implications are also discussed, with respect to policy makers and the larger international community, who have the obligation to uphold these rights.

[Better rights for sick children]. / Bedre rettigheter for syke barn.

Recognizing that healthy children are the future of Europe and the rights of every child to equitable access to health care which is appropriate, child-oriented and of good quality must be respected; The health and well-being of children are priority goals shared by all member states within the general context of human rights and the specific framework of children's rights; Investments in children's health and wellbeing ensures better outcome for the entire lifespan and may reduce the burden on health and welfare systems, since a significant number of avoidable physical and socio-psychological problems in adult life have their origin in infancy and childhood Effective and efficient child-friendly healthcare contributes to social cohesion

[Children's health protection in the state political system].

The system of children's health protection in this country still lacks an adequate legal basis. Its improvement should be considered as a function of the state realized through legal regulation of public relations for the benefit of each child based on the legislatively fixed government policy in the sphere of children's health care. Such an approach may strengthen the role of this sphere in the intersectoral relations and implies the extension of pediatrics toward interaction with the spheres of politics and law. It reflects the understanding that physiological processes behind regulation of the functioning of the child's organism in the course of its development need an adequate support from the outside through regulation of public relations on behalf of children. The definition of state policy in the sphere of children's health care is proposed and its basic principles are considered.

Violence Against Children: Recognition, Rights, Responses.

All forms of violence against children (VAC) are violations of children's rights. Traditional definitions of child maltreatment do not address the rapidly evolving global spectrum of VAC. In this article, we offer an expanded definition of VAC that integrates the principles of child rights, clinical medicine, and public health. The authors further expand the socioecological model to establish a trans-societal sphere, composed of root-cause determinants of VAC, including climate change, globalization, armed conflict, etc. A child rights-based taxonomy of VAC is also presented. The authors conclude with recommendations to address VAC in the domains of clinical practice, systems development, and policy generation.

In search of the highest attainable standard of mental health for children.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) may be a leading example of psychological jurisprudence. By its emphasis on promotion of the "child's sense of dignity and worth," the CRC offers a framework for comprehensive child policy in a manner that is consistent with the promotion of mental health and prevention of mental health problems.

Child participation and positive youth development.

This article explains how a child's right to participation in healthy relationships, experiences, and opportunities promotes positive youth development. The author identifies the substantive articles related to participation, identifies and explains the social anchors vital to promoting participation, highlights the importance of the 40 developmental assets for empowering children with the capacities necessary to assert their right to participation, and concludes by calling for a national family policy guided by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Denial of the child's right to counsel, voice, and participation in juvenile delinquency proceedings.

Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child clearly recognizes the importance of the child's voice in judicial proceedings that affect him or her. Nowhere is the child's voice more important than in delinquency proceedings where decisions will be made about the child's liberty, rehabilitative prospects, and other important constitutional rights. This article examines the role of the child's voice in improving fairness and accuracy in adjudicatory and dispositional decisions and enhancing therapeutic outcomes for youth in juvenile court.

U.S. ratification of the CRC and reducing child poverty: can we get there from here?

If the United States finally ratifies the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC), will it improve the country's to effectively combat child poverty and thereby improve child well-being? This article addresses this and related questions in two ways. First, the authors examine how ratification of the CRC has influenced the efforts of other wealthy Anglophone countries to reduce child poverty. Second, they draw on lessons learned from these other countries' efforts to generate predictions about America's postratification future. The authors conclude that, while the CRC is a compelling, practical tool, a communications strategy and business plan are necessary complements to achieve desired results.

What I Learned From the Antivaccine Movement.

The following is the runner-up submission from the third annual Section on Pediatric Trainees essay competition. This year's competition was informed by the 2018-2019 Section on Pediatric Trainees Advocacy Campaign: Advocacy Adventure, which empowered trainees to find their areas of passion, acquire and polish new skills, and organize advocacy efforts collaboratively. We asked writers to share experiences as physician advocates and were impressed with the broad variety of important topics submitted by trainees from around the country. This essay by Dr Ju describes advocating at the California state level for childhood immunization protections, which transformed her perspective of those who hold a different view. Along with the winning submission by Drs Panda and Garg that also appears in this issue, this piece is a wonderfully inspiring reminder that we are all well positioned to advocate for children in our roles as trainees and pediatricians.

The Rights of Children for Optimal Development and Nurturing Care.

Millions of children are subjected to abuse, neglect, and displacement, and millions more are at risk for not achieving their developmental potential. Although there is a global movement to change this, driven by children's rights, progress is slow and impeded by political considerations. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, a global comprehensive commitment to children's rights ratified by all countries in the world except the United States (because of concerns about impingement on sovereignty and parental authority), has a special General Comment on "Implementing Child Rights in Early Childhood." More recently, the World Health Organization and United Nations Children's Fund have launched the Nurturing Care Framework for Early Childhood Development (ECD), which calls for public policies that promote nurturing care interventions and addresses 5 interrelated components that are necessary for optimal ECD. This move is also complemented by the Human Capital Project of the World Bank, providing a focus on the need for investments in child health and nutrition and their long-term benefits. In this article, we outline children's rights under international law, the underlying scientific evidence supporting attention to ECD, and the philosophy of nurturing care that ensures that children's rights are respected, protected, and fulfilled. We also provide pediatricians anywhere with the policy and rights-based frameworks that are essential for them to care for and advocate for children and families to ensure optimal developmental, health, and socioemotional outcomes. These recommendations do not necessarily reflect American Academy of Pediatrics policy.