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.