Page 2535 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 15 November 1989
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the child's or his or her parent's or legal guardian's race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property, disability, birth or other status.
Section 2 of article 2 reads:
States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that the child is protected against all forms of discrimination or punishment on the basis of the status, activities, expressed opinions, or beliefs of the child's parents, legal guardians, or family members.
That the child should be protected against punishments according to the opinions or beliefs of the child's parents is a nonsense. There is no other way that parents can punish or discipline their children without it being according to their opinions or beliefs. Does this mean that the child can refuse perhaps to accompany parents to church or medical treatment?
Article 12 says in section 1:
States Parties shall assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child, the views of the child being given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child.
Within that section it says, "States parties shall assure to the child the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child". The vastness of these articles is extreme. I have taken extensive legal advice on these matters. I suggest that those people who have not read the convention, or who have not sought legal advice on it, should by all means do so. One of the major problems in people not understanding this is that there has been precious little parliamentary and public debate on the matter.
I turn to article 13, section 1. I will read the words in the order in which I want to highlight them and then I will read the whole section. It says that the child shall have the right to freedom of expression, freedom to seek and receive information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, or through any media of the child's choice. The full text of section 1 reads:
The child shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of the child's choice.
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