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Dear Alison, I have been doing a fair amount of work on disabled children's rights as part of the project which Gill refers to in her post. The project is called Disabled Children's Rights and the UN CRC: an Advocacy Tool. (I know, snappy isn't it?) I won't go into details here, as you can find the full background on this project on the Enabling Education website: www.eenet.org.uk (In English and Portuguese) Just to say that one of the main things that struck me when starting work on this project was the invisibility of disabled children. You find literature on child rights in general, on disabled people's rights in a Human Rights/ UN Standard Rules framework, but disabled children tend to get lost between the two. I should also point out that this is not an academic project. The aim is one of advocacy - to create and use this data as a resource/tool to promote disabled children's rights. Most of the material collected is descriptive rather than analytical, taken from reports, personal stories, (letters, interviews). My task has been to look at each example from a child rights perspective, identify which Article(s) it might relate to and whether it demonstrates a violation or 'good' or 'improving practice'. The project is still in progress, and contributions are still being received, but some analysis has been started (otherwise it would be a never-ending task!) Some major gaps remain - for example, we have no examples of good practice in relation to disabled children and sexual abuse; no contributions from children or adults with learning difficulties/disabilities, and very few related to children with mental health problems. Also two regions in the world are under-represented - South and Central America, and the Pacific. (Contributions in Spanish, Portuguese, French or English are welcome). These are gaps which I am trying to remedy, so any pointers, contacts, references would be very welcome. Let me know if you are interested in more information/exchange/discussion ... About the Child Rights Information Network: I agree with Gill there is some useful information, but not always the most up-to-date (There have been staff upheavals recently). I think It is the only place you can find the alternative NGO country reports on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, for example. As for the Rights of Disabled Children desk - try sending relevant material for inclusion, they seem to be getting themselves more organised now. With best wishes, Hazel Jones Tel: 44 1904 620603 e-mail: [log in to unmask] ----- Original Message ----- From: Alison Cocks <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: 03 February 2000 21:31 Subject: Children's Rights > > Help, > > I wonder if anyone could point me toward any good literature re: children's > rights, particulary in relation to disabled children. I have come across > Morris (1998) Middleton(1999)Archard and Alderson but am wondering what > else is out there. I am trying to decide whether rights is an appropriate > discourse to use in my research or whether I could get more distance from > using concepts of agency, citizenship, personhood. > > I am also wondering if there is anything written about the implications of > the Human Rights Act in relation to disabled people. > > I would be interested to hear anyone elses views on this as well!! > > Thanks in advance > > Alison Cocks > PhD Student > University of Surrey > > > > %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%