Queering the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child: Reimagining Children's Rights and the Position of the LGBTQIA+ Child

Abstract

While there is increasing attention for LGBTQIA+ concerns within human rights generally, the legal instruments and academic discussions regarding children’s rights remain largely silent on issues involving sexuality and gender. In this context, this thesis explores the world’s leading document on children’s rights – the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) – from a critical queer theoretical perspective, uncovering how children’s rights are interwoven with social constructs surrounding gender and sexuality. In challenging these norms, this thesis investigates how Convention rights can be interpreted and applied more effectively, centralising conceptual and practical innovation in contexts where LGBTQIA+ children are often marginalised. Chapters 1 and 2 examine the relationship between the UNCRC and core facets of queer theory to establish a theoretical framework that engages with common conceptions of childhood and their implications in a rights context. Chapters 3-6 evaluate the general principles of the UNCRC (non-discrimination, best interests of the child, right to life and development and the right to participation), determining how a queerer interpretation could improve the implementation of Convention rights as a whole. Chapters 7 and 8 analyse the right to health and education, drawing on the general principles to address key practical shortcomings and potentials for LGBTQIA+ children in health care and schools. It concludes that the UNCRC has great potential to catalyse the realisation of LGBTQIA-focused protections, but more work is needed to clarify and strengthen the legal position of the queer child within its ambit.