Protecting Children: Promoting their Rights

    By Norma Baldwin.
    Whiting & Birch
    £17.95
    ISBN 1861770138

    Victoria Climbié enjoyed few rights. And it cannot be
    claimed that in her brief life her rights were denied in order to
    best protect her safety. This balance between protection and rights
    is a key theme in the thoughtful series of essays that Norma
    Baldwin has brought together.

    This book is shaped by the teaching and teachers on the Warwick
    University advanced course on child protection. It also
    acknowledges both the child welfare system in Scotland and the
    particular challenges posed by partnerships with black communities,
    such as the private fostering of Nigerian children and protection
    for Asian children. These chapters, in what is a very practical
    source book, help to show the complexity of the subject matter
    covered.

    Equally useful are considerations of disabled children, issues
    of rights in education and the physical and sexual abuse of
    boys.
    The book ends with an affirming survey of what people in the Healey
    ward of Coventry felt was necessary to support their rights to
    bring up children. This confirms the necessity of listening to
    people define their own rights and the divergence, sometimes,
    between private difficulties and public policies.

    Chris Hanvey is UK director of operations,
    Barnardo’s.

     

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