Human Rights and Adolescence (Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0812246314 ISBN 13: 9780812246315

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014

Synopsis

While young children's rights have received considerable attention and have accordingly advanced over the past two decades, the rights of adolescents have been neglected. This manifests itself in pervasive gender-based violence, widespread youth disaffection and unemployment, concerning levels of self-abuse, violence and antisocial engagement, and serious mental and physical health deficits. The cost of inaction on these issues is likely to be dramatic in terms of human suffering, lost social and economic opportunities, and threats to global peace and security. Across the range of disciplines that make up contemporary human rights, from law and social advocacy to global health, history, economics, sociology, politics, and psychology, it is time, the contributors of this volume contend, for adolescent rights to occupy a coherent place of their own.

Human Rights and Adolescence presents a multifaceted inquiry into the global circumstances of adolescents, focusing on the human rights challenges and socioeconomic obstacles young adults face. Contributors use new research to advance feasible solutions and timely recommendations for a wide range of issues spanning all continents, from relevant international legal norms to neuropsychological adolescent brain development, gender discrimination in Indian education to Colombian child soldier recruitment, stigmatization of Roma youth in Europe to economic disempowerment of Middle Eastern and South African adolescents. Taken together, the research emphasizes the importance of dedicated attention to adolescence as a distinctive and critical phase of development between childhood and adulthood and outlines the task of building on the potential of adolescents while providing support for the challenges they experience.

Contributors: Theresa S. Betancourt, Jacqueline Bhabha, Krishna Bose, Neera Burra, Malcolm Bush, Jocelyn DeJong, Elizabeth Gibbons, Katrina Hann, Mary Kawar, Orla Kelly, David Mark, Margareta Matache, Clea McNeely, Glaudine Mtshali, Katie Naeve, Elizabeth A. Newnham, Victor Pineda, Irene Rizzini, Elena Rozzi, Christian Salazar Volkmann, Shantha Sinha, Laurence Steinberg, Kerry Thompson, Jean Zermatten, Moses Zombo.

About this title

Review:

"Through in-depth analysis of existing international legal norms and implementation gaps, this volume makes a compelling case for a conscious adoption of a rights-based approach toward adolescents. Carefully balanced contributions from very different horizons reflect perfectly the complexity of the issue. Their message confirms the editor's call for a deliberate international focus on the rights, challenges, and opportunities for these children on the verge of adulthood."—Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, UN Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution, and child pornography

"A timely and important volume, Human Rights and Adolescence brings together work by a diverse array of global scholars and practitioners to provide a much needed understanding of a rights-based approach to adolescence. By placing an adolescent rights agenda at the core, Human Rights and Adolescence adds a nuanced contribution to the emergent field of adolescent research and policy. This interdisciplinary volume will be useful for students of law, policy, and public health."—Martha Brady, Senior Associate, Population Council

From the Author:

Jacqueline Bhabha is Director of Research at the Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard School of Public Health.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0812246314
• ISBN 13: 9780812246315
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 376
• Editor: Bhabha Jacqueline