Citizenship rights of sexually exploited children : self, dignity and power

In this study I argue for a re-articulation of children’s rights from the normative, formal interpretations of children’s rights as conceived within a liberal framework of rights to an anti-racist feminist perspective of citizenship rights. Using the concepts of self, dignity and power I critique the limitations of mainstream, liberal articulations of children’s rights that treat children’s self as passive and interprets their rights of equality in terms of children’s status as pre-citizens within normative and contractual notions of social justice. I position myself within anti-racist feminist models of citizenship rights, which are difference-centred, and address the rights of citizens, such as children, based on an acknowledgement of their differences and their agency. Moreover anti-racist feminist models of citizenship rights address themselves to liberatory claims for social justice by acknowledge the differential experiences of inclusion and exclusion that citizens encounter as it is inflected by their social identity and also seek to transform dominant structures within the social culture. I focus my theorization on citizenship rights of children by analyzing the rights of sexually exploited children. Central to my analysis of the citizenship rights of sexually exploited children are the narratives of former sexually exploited children whose voices I incorporate through the use of a retrospective, narrative approach to field research. The research participants’ narratives of their lived experiences, both in interviews and through focus group participation, fundamentally contest hegemonic constructions about children’s selves as ‘victims’, the privileging of the family as the ‘natural’ place where children belong, and the narrow interpretation of oppression as ‘sexual abuse’ assumed in present articulations of their legal rights. Their narratives also serve to critique normative institutional practices and policies by which their rights are presently circumscribed. I conclude by re-articulating the rights of sexually exploited children in terms of their citizenship rights that acknowledge children’s rights of participation and belonging in society, and also by addressing power relations in society that exclude children from exercising their rights of citizenship. I also discuss practice and policy implications of a difference-centred approach to program development and planning.