Children's right to religion and spirituality: legal, educational and practical perspectives

The attempt to establish children’s rights can be called one of the major twentieth‐century projects, with the 1989 United Nations Convention on Children’s Rights as one of its most important results. Yet while the issue of spiritual development has played a clear role in the struggle for children’s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:British journal of religious education
Main Author: Schweitzer, Friedrich 1954- (Author)
Format: Electronic/Print Article
Language:English
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Published: Routledge 2005
In: British journal of religious education
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Religion / Child / Human rights
RelBib Classification:AA Study of religion
NCC Social ethics
XA Law
Online Access: Volltext (kostenfrei)
Description
Summary:The attempt to establish children’s rights can be called one of the major twentieth‐century projects, with the 1989 United Nations Convention on Children’s Rights as one of its most important results. Yet while the issue of spiritual development has played a clear role in the struggle for children’s rights ever since the ground‐breaking Geneva Declaration of the 1920s, the 1989 declaration does not include a clear reference to children’s right to religion or spirituality. The aim of the present article is to investigate the possibilities for establishing such a right, not only in legal terms but also on pedagogical grounds and in terms of religious education. How can children’s needs be taken seriously, for example, vis‐à‐vis death and dying? How does a children’s rights perspective affect the understanding of religious education? What could a more formally established right to religion and spirituality really mean for the child, as well as for educational institutions? The article discusses such questions in conversation with educational authors such as Janusz Korczak, the pioneer of ‘children’s right to respect’, as well as with psychological theories of individual, social and religious or spiritual development.
ISSN:0141-6200
Contains:In: British journal of religious education
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/0141620042000336602