6^th Session: Children, Minorities and Identity: 

Understanding Articles 8 and 30 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

June 25 to 30, 2017

Since 2012, the International Summer Course on the Rights of the Child has been held yearly, with a focus on a different article of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The Course is intended for anyone who has an interest in the rights of children, and for professionals of all disciplines who work with children. It is a great opportunity to strengthen national capacities to advocate for children’s rights through institutional stakeholders such as Child and Youth Advocates, Children’s Commissioners, Ombudsman, bar associations and professionals in health, education, child protection and other fields. Thanks to a multidisciplinary format, this course facilitates networking during a variety of events, from workshops to cultural events.

For its 6th session the Summer Course sponsors are pulling out all the stops and putting together an unprecedented program to celebrate the rights of indigenous and minority children and Canada’s sesquicentenary. In light of 150 years of Confederation, the International Summer Course on the Rights of the Child 2017 will address the child’s right to preserve his or her identity, as proclaimed under Article 8 of the Convention along with the right of children from ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities or indigenous groups to enjoy their own culture, practice their faith and speak their own language, as proclaimed in article 30 of the UNCRC.

Articles 8 and 30 of the UNCRC will therefore form the basis of the 2017 summer session. The course will explore how children and young people forge their identities, not only cultural, linguistic and ethnic, but also gender identity and other minority group identities. Participants will have the chance to examine the minority contexts with particular focus upon official language minority rights, indigenous minority rights, immigrant and newcomer child rights, gender minority rights and other equality challenges in a national perspective, and also in a global perspective looking at challenges, opportunities and best practices worldwide.

Through empirical research, it has been proven that the adolescent years are in fact the most crucial years in the development of a youth’s sense of self and identity. This can become especially complex for immigrant and indigenous children and youth. Even though many developmental stages in adolescence are roughly comparable, minority youth often face challenges in shaping their identities given their ethnicity, status as minority group members, and acculturation. The course will explore how non-discrimination and integration policies in relation to minority populations have addressed the equality gap and how different groups of children, for instance in the Canadian context, Francophone minorities outside Quebec, Anglophone minorities in Quebec, indigenous children, immigrant children or LBGTQ+ children and youth may learn from one another.

The course will take the form of a discussion forum open to all disciplines; experts in the fields of law, health, education, psychology, criminology, recreation, etc., are all invited to submit paper and conference proposals. The call for proposals invites applicants to approach the topic in relation to the broad themes set out below. Each of these themes may be analyzed from different angles: legislative, administrative, experiential (from the youth’s perspective) or from the perspective of child rights theory (implementation practice and procedures).

The selected communications will focus on the following themes for reflection:

1. Linguistic Minorities

Canada’s bilingual heritage is a defining characteristic of our country. Many have said that Canada’s record of linguistic accommodation explains and justifies its existence as a nation. Yet official language minorities make up only 6.4% of the Canadian population. Even for these small numbers, have we achieved true equality for children in different official language communities, in sectors, such as health and education, for example? Do Francophone and Anglophone communities in Canada have access to the same health services regardless of their status? How does the delivery of public services to children in a language that is not their own affect their development? Are distinctions between official language minority groups and other linguistic minorities warranted? What special measures of protection do we owe to indigenous linguistic communities, particularly those that are unique to Canada? What are the rights of children from allophone communities? Do they have only a right to be assimilated?

2. Indigenous minorities

The UNCRC is innovative in several ways, but distinctly so in that it is the first universal human rights treaty to expressly recognize the rights of indigenous people, particularly in the wording of Article 30 of the Convention. Canada’s history of abuse and neglect of First Nations children has been chronicled in the recent Truth and Reconciliation process and remains a challenge today as witnessed by recent UNCRC Committee Concluding Observations and Canadian Human Rights Tribunal rulings. How can a universal child rights lens be culturally safe or competent for indigenous children? The Summer Course invites paper proposals dealing with the implementation of children’s rights in indigenous minority contexts in Canada and around the world.

3. New frontiers in children’s equality

Beyond the distinctions between Francophones and Anglophones or between indigenous and non-indigenous children which have proven so defining and have presented such intractable challenges in Canada, the Summer Course wants to explore the challenges faced by children of religious, linguistic or ethnic minorities who are forging new lives grounded in a minority immigrant experience. Do children of religious minorities face particular challenges in Canada, in Europe or elsewhere? How must they adapt to the norms of an increasingly secular state? Beyond this reality of the children of multicultural states who are increasingly numerous, this theme will seek to push the boundaries of equality and ask how do LGBTQ+ children define community? What about deaf children or other children with disabilities? What guaranties of equality can be inferred from Articles 8 and 30 of the Convention for children of other minority groups?

4. Forging Identity 

Moving away from a strict minority rights children’s equality analysis, this theme in the Summer Course will explore the anthropological, sociological and psychological aspects of our theme of identity and minority experiences in childhood. Childhood and adolescence have long been regarded as a crucial time in life when identity is formed and forged. In an increasingly wired world, how do various social media support or threaten a child’s nascent sense of self and their right to be different? Why is the child’s minority experience so intricately linked with identity and does this assumption remain true in the absence of discrimination? Is a child’s minority identity a risk factor or a factor of resilience? As we celebrate and protect minority rights, can we also eradicate discrimination? Or, does the protection of minorities and the achievement of true equality require a certain conformism that blurs the necessary tensions that define us, that leaves no room for the other or for cultural difference?

Miscellaneous themes

The themes are not by any means exhaustive or exclusive, so a limited number of communications could relate to other aspects, as long as they fit broadly within the general topic of the Summer Course, as set forth in the introduction.

Procedure to submit a proposal 

Individuals who wish to submit a proposal in order to give an oral presentation in one of the two official languages of New Brunswick and Canada are invited to do so.

Proposals (½ page max) must be accompanied by a short biography (250 words max). Please indicate the chosen theme for reflection (1, 2, 3, 4 or other theme).

Please send your proposal to Sarah Dennene at sarah.dennene@gnb.ca by January 30, 2017. Proposals will be examined by the organizing committee, and then assessed in light of their potential to enrich the exchanges. Those individuals whose proposals are accepted will be notified by the end of February, 2017.

For more information, please click here.