The implementation of children's rights - working with working children in Somoto Nicaragua

The United Nations' Convention on the rights of the child presents a legislative framework that nations worldwide through their ratification have promised to aim for. Going from theory to practice this field study intends to investigate how the work to implement the children’s rights is carried out in reality by social institutions in Somoto Nicaragua. This essay specifically looks at how a children’s rights approach is performed in the work with working children and will therefore focus on two rights that protrude as relevant to the target group; the right to education and the right to be protected from hazardous work and economic exploitation. Furthermore, this paper considers existent criticism towards the human rights conventions for being Eurocentric in its visions and not always applicable to local conditions. Therefore the perception of working children locally in Nicaragua is examined to see how well this is in accordance with the legislation on children’s rights or if the social institutions have met difficulties in the implementation. Fundamental in the work carried out by the social institutions has been to raise awareness in the society on the children’s rights. The conclusion is that attitudes to working children have gone through a change since the introduction of a children’s rights approach in Somoto, but what remains the major obstacle to implementation is the restricted access to economic resources