The UN UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted unanimously on 20 November 1989 states all children must have equal access to information. (UN, 1989) Upholding egalitarianism as foundational Australian value it is essential that those empowered create greater access to information to all in society even if this requires extra measures because they are refugees, disabled, belong to a minority group, live in remote areas or have parents without a job.
As Koren (1998) has suggested respecting this convention also means taking into account the evolving capacities to the child, thus adapting information and programmes to their understanding, but never underestimating or downgrading children’s competence, but challenging them instead. She describes the child, in essence, as an information seeker, recognising the physical emotional, cognitive and social development of the child is greatly impacted by the child’s providers of information.
Over 25 years ago she already suggested that “the approach that children only have to be protected and are not competent to views, ideas and decision-making is outdated” As I have advocated previously, it is critical that current TLs to engage across legislative and professional bodies in the re-writing of policy that recognises children’s rights in a more egalitarian manner. Valerie Thomson (2004) has highlighted the importance of this in regard to working towards clearer protection of privacy of information in policy, as children’s rights can often be undermined by the institutions and power structures intended to protect them.
The clear and present crisis of growing global inequality in access to information is felt most acutely by children. TLs should lead discussions that are connected to global human rights by asking how we can build libraries that allow our students to advance the rights of children to information internationally. This is a position that has been endorsed most recently by the Association Library Service to Children (Prendergast, Diamant-Cohen, Goldsmith, 2018). There is a concern at the moment that the gap between the “information haves” and “information have-nots” could lead to even greater social and economic inequality in our society that will be difficult, if not impossible, to reverse (Neumann and Celano, 2006) that must be addressed through the active promotion of children’s right to information by TLs. By identifying aspects of policy that are in conflict with the rights of the child TLs can engage in transforming the communities with which they work from information “have nots” to “haves”.
References
Koren, Marian (1998) The right of the child to information and its practical impact on children’s libraries, New Review of Children’s Literature & Lib, 4:1, 1-16, DOI: 10.1080/13614549809510599
Letter of Bahá’î International Community, undated, referring to its proposal about the aims of education (UN Doc. E/CN.4/1985/WG.1/WP.2).
Prendergast, T., Diamant-Cohen, B., & Goldsmith, A. Y. (2018). Advocating for children’s rights. Children & Libraries, 16(2), 37-38. Retrieved from https://ezproxy.csu.edu.au/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/scholarly-journals/advocating-childrens-rights/docview/2091600967/se-2?accountid=10344
Neuman, S. B., & Celano, D. (2006). The knowledge gap: Implications of leveling the playing field for low-income and middle-income children. Reading Research Quarterly, 41(2), 176–201. https://doi.org/10.1598/RRQ.41.2.2
Thomson, V. (2004). Children’s rights in the library. School Libraries in Canada, 24(4), 38-42. Retrieved from https://ezproxy.csu.edu.au/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/scholarly-journals/childrens-rights-library/docview/222538172/se-2?accountid=10344
UN Doc. GA Res 44/25, 1989. See for the full text: http://eurochild.gla.ac.uk/Rights.htm.