Reseña

The rights of children and adolescents now occupy a central place in human rights theory and practice. Due to the influence of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), these rights have become an essential component of the foundational framework of constitutional and democratic legal systems. This evolution, as explored in this booklet, has been promoted and reinforced by the growing jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) in this field. The most significant development in the area of children’s and adolescents’ rights has been the transition from a paradigm of tutelary protection to one of comprehensive protection. Although there are several differences between the two models, the key distinction lies in their legal and moral conception of children and adolescents: objects of protection or subjects of rights. Under the paradigm of comprehensive protection—enshrined in both the CRC and the American Convention on Human Rights (ACHR)—children and adolescents are recognized as rights-bearing individuals. That is, they are subjects with primary interests that include, but are not limited to, the protection of their basic needs. From this legal perspective, they are regarded as legal persons entitled to a range of rights designed to safeguard and guarantee: a) basic interests (such as life, family life, personal integrity and liberty, due process, identity, and equality); b) development interests (including access to health care, education, housing, social security, and cultural life); and c) autonomy interests (such as the evolving capacity to make decisions, to be heard and taken seriously, and to participate meaningfully in social, political, and cultural life).