A Child-Centered Society

[deafnva77]

Child-Centered Society
The Netherlands and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

If you could choose any country in the world in which to raise your child, which would you choose?

You might be inclined to choose the comforts of the United States or Britain, the charm of European mainstays like France and Germany, the Mediterranean climate of Italy, Spain or Tuscany, or the thrill of expanding opportunities in Hong Kong and Japan. But according to the United Nations, the best place for you to raise your children is in a small cluster of countries nestled in Northern Europe. That?s because the rights of your children are most likely to be protected in Sweden, Belgium, Denmark, or the number-one spot in the world . . . the Netherlands.

Kiss me, I?m . . . Dutch?

In 2007, the United Nations Children?s Fund (UNICEF) released a comprehensive study that evaluated the quality of life of children in more than twenty developed countries. Starting with the principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the authors of the report developed different factors to use in compiling their list of the world?s most child-friendly countries. Surprisingly, the Netherlands was at the top of their list.

According to UNICEF, Dutch children lead the rest of the world in terms of their ?subjective well-being,? based on several international surveys where youth expressed their own opinions on their health, enjoyment of school, and overall satisfaction with themselves and their lives.1 Put simply, children in the Netherlands are the most likely to feel healthy, like school, and enjoy their everyday lives.

A Child-centered Society

UNICEF?s findings were so unexpected that reporters from the United Kingdom (which had placed dead-last in the report) went overseas on a quest to discover the secret of the Netherlands? success. One such reporter, Kathryn Westcott of the BBC News, made a shocking discovery: Dutch children were certainly happy, but they were also the center of their society .

According to Westcott, the secret to Dutch children?s success is that ?their parents go out of their way to please them, and teachers expect less of them than some of their European counterparts.?2 Moreover, this is hardly a new phenomenon. ?The Netherlands has always been a very child-centered society,? said Professor Paul Vangeert of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. ?Their wishes become so strong that parents have to work very hard to give them what they want.?3

The Land of ?Freedom??

When it comes to making personal decisions, children in the Netherlands also enjoy an extraordinary amount of freedom. According to Westcott, the Netherlands is famous for its tolerant attitudes toward activities like drinking, smoking, drugs, and sex, and this tolerance extends to its children as well.4 Sex education in the Netherlands begins at the age of 4, and the age of consent is set at twelve.5 In 2006, over 92% of fifteen year-old boys admitted using some form of contraception, and the rate for fifteen year-old girls was even higher, at 97%.6....

http://www.parentalrights.org/blog/uncrc/cr2#more-103

[Marcus2Israel]

:eek

[John81]

Soon to be VP Joe Biden and soon to be Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are both very much for America ratifying the UN treaty on the rights of the child; which President Bill Clinton signed, but no congress has yet ratified.