La objeción a la custodia compartida. El problema de la conflictividad entre los progenitores

The children’s rights perspective is a second theoretical perspective employed in this study. It is founded on the norms, principles and standards of the international human rights system. Rights entail legal entitlements that address the special need for protection and care for children. They can defined as “claims or entitlements that derive from moral and/or legal rules” (Freeman , 2007 cited in Te One, 2011, p. 41). Children’s rights under the UNCRC are spread across 45 articles which delineate a range of provision, protection, and participation rights for children popularly categories as the 3Ps (Alderson, 2000; Berthelsen & Brownlee, 2005). Similar rights though not equivalent have also been enshrined in the ACRWC. The African charter on the rights of the child reflects more of the situation of children in African countries; cultural context, social economic situations and socio-political conflict (Tine & Ennew, 1998 ). Both conventions are guided by the same principle; Best interest of the child, Non-discrimination, survival and development and participation but their application is contextual.

3.4.1 The Protection, Provision and Participation rights (3Ps)

Children’s safety is of paramount importance in ECCD. The conventions provide protection rights which encompass children’s right to be protected from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, drug

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abuse, all forms of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse, abduction, sale or trafficking in children, special attention and protection to children in times of war and refugee children, respect of minority children and prohibition of the death penalty for children. In this study, the perspective provides an understanding of how children’s protection rights are met through Centre Based ECCD.

ECCD is regarded as a right of every child. The General Comment (Number 7) of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child provides guidance to States parties on rights in early childhood. It provides for the provision of early childhood education to children regardless of their sex and age (Woodhead & Moss, 2007). The children’s rights conventions cover a broad spectrum of provision rights which includes healthcare, education, adequate standard of living, nutrition, clothing, adequate housing, social security and the right to have a name, a nationality and an identity. For the purpose of this thesis, focus is on education, healthcare and play rights. Healthcare and nutrition, education, play and leisure reflected in Article 24, 28 & 29, 31 of the UNCRC and Article 14, 11, 12 of the ACRWC respectively are important provision rights that all children ought to have in ECCD centres. However, funding, poverty, low level of appreciation of ECCD among others make it difficult for children in poor countries to attain their provision rights enshrined in the conventions. The study explored how children’s right to education (learning), healthcare and play are met through Centre Based ECCD.

Children’s participation rights were significantly considered in this study. Participation rights entail the involvement of children in different spheres of life or matter that affect them (Smith,2002 cited in Berthelsen & Brownlee, 2005). However, Morrow admits that “ defining children’s participation is not straightforward (Morrow, 2011, p.10). On a broader perspective, participation rights encompass among other things the right to freedom of expression, thought, conscience, religion and association. These participation rights are enshrined in Article 12 and 13 of UNCRC (1989) and Article 7 of the African Charter. For instance the UNCRC state that;

To the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child, the views of the child being given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child.’ (Article 12) and the right ‘to the child freedom of expression [including] freedom to seek, review and impart information and ideas of all kind... through any other media of the child’s choice (Article 13)5

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While the ACWRC in Article 7 state that every child who is capable of communicating his or her own views should be allowed to express his or her opinions freely6

Since ECCD is a matter that affects children, the study employed children as key informants alongside adults. Shier highlights five levels of understanding children’s participation rights and these include: (1) children being listened to; (2) children supported to express their views; (3) children’s views being taken into account; (4) children involved in decision- making processes and (5) children sharing power (Shier, 2001 cited in Berthelsen & Brownlee, 2005). The participation rights influenced the choice of methods employed to extract children’s views and experiences while taking their views seriously and supporting them to freely express them.

Boshier (2005) explains that the UNCRC reconceptualises children as citizens who are right claimers with autonomy as well as social participants in their own right. Children are no longer thought of as objects or properties of their parent who should wait to exercise their rights in adulthood but they are regarded as human beings who are entitled to the same degree of respect as adults. This perspective is compatible with theoretical developments in the social studies of childhood (Boshier , 2005 cited in Smith, 2007).

However, the individualist approach embedded in the UNCRC in which children are regarded as rights claimers with autonomy is problematic and not easily applicable to many Sub- Saharan setting (Abebe & Kjørholt, 2013).In Zambia like many other African countries children do not exist as individuals but belong to the wider society which includes the extended family and the significant others. Hence the value of individualism does not exist but that of relatedness which is cultural and embedded in the societies of many countries in the global south countries (Boyden, 1990; Njungwe, 2009; Obibi 2003 in Woodhead & Montgomery, 2003).Therefore, participation in relation to children’s right is a “highly contextualized concept, in that it is practiced in diverse ways in differing places and spaces, and its meaning and interpretation vary according to its contexts” (Lister, 2008 in Morrow, 2011, p.10). The problem associated with rights discourse lies in its roots in Neo-liberal ideologies which award children individual rights and view them as autonomous and free individual thereby neglecting the values and norms held by societies in which the children live (Kjørholt, 2004 in Abebe & Kjørholt, 2013). Therefore, Abebe and Kjørholt (2013)

6 ACRWC. (1999). African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. .

http://www.au.int/en/sites/default/files/Charter_En_African_Charter_on_the_Rights_and_Wlefare_of_the_Child_AddisAbaba_July1990.pdf

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argue that it is imperative that cultural sensitive approaches are applied if the children’s rights conventions are to serve the intended purpose.

This study took a cultural sensitive approach in engaging children while giving them a platform to take part in matters that affect them as informants. The children were not completely separated from adults watch during interviews but were regarded as competent subjects and social actors with rights to participate in society and be able to voice out their views on ECCD a matter that affect their lives.

Like the social studies of childhood, the UNCRC also challenges the traditional attitudes and perceptions highlighted in the pre-sociological and psychological theories by recognising children as subject of rights, entitled to be involved in decisions and actions that affect them ( Lansdown, 2004 cited in Schiller & Einarsdottir, 2009). Therefore, viewing children as holders of rights involves incorporating the concept of children as agents and social actors, and including their perceptions on their own lives and experiences (Smith, 2007)

I employed the children rights perspective because it fits well with the social studies of childhood as it recognize children's agency and competency as well as acknowledging children as experts in their own right (Clark, 2005; Smith, 2007). Pascal and Bertram (2009) explain that since the ratification of the UNCRC, children’s right to have a voice, and to have their opinions heard, has led many providers and practitioners in the field of early childhood to seek ways to involve children’s perspectives in the evaluation and development of practices. This study gave children alongside adults a voice to express themselves on how they experience Centre Based ECCD program in their own right.