Why should the children’s rights be respected?
There is such a story, maybe it is a joke. A girl child in a family that moved to the U.S. from Armenian in 80s, of course, is raised by the American standards, and when the parents want to raise their voice, or moreover, slap, she immediately says that it is a violation of her rights, and she would call “911” or the police, and the parents would bear the responsibility for their behavior by the full severity of the American laws. In the 90s, when they were coming to Armenia as “tourists”, the father is shouting and is giving a good slap across his daughter’s face just at the “Zvartnots” airport, taking the revenge of all his “missed opportunities”, and then announces, “I am staying in my country, and you go back to your country.”
If something is exaggerated in this story, just the details, because, usually, our Armenian families are talking about the “western” morals with great contempt. “Of course, I should give a couple of slaps to my child, otherwise he/she will not become a human”. “What is the state to do in this matter, to interfere in my personal life?” “That’s why all children there are spoiled.” “Now, they want to wrap their immorality around our neck so that our children also become spoiled, and the nation be destroyed.”
Probably, it would not hurt to remind the participants of the talks sitting around the table of “lunch” that the aforesaid norms and values are enshrined not only in European or American documents, they were accepted in 193 countries, including Russia, as well as dozens of African and Asian states. The document, which was also signed by Armenia, is called the UN Convention on Human Rights and was adopted in 1989, that is, when the EU Eastern Partnership program was not existing. 30 years prior to this Convention, the United Nations adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child.
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A brief quotation from the Convention. Article 12, clause one: “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.” Clause two: “For this purpose, the child shall in particular be provided the opportunity to be heard in any judicial and administrative proceedings affecting the child, either directly, or through a representative or an appropriate body, in a manner consistent with the procedural rules of national law” (according to parliament.am)
Imagine, starting from age 10, if a problem has raised between the parents, the child can already been asked at the court with whom he/she wants to live: with mother or father. It’s true, the court may also take into account the child’s opinion and have its own observations. Since 16 years of age, the child can independently applied to the court for matters of his/her interest. And, I repeat, this is a norm of the legislation adopted not only by “spoiled” Europeans or Americans, but also Armenia and a few dozen other states.
“That is exactly why our national traditions have disappeared, – will complain people of my age after dinner, – that’s why the respect towards adults has disappeared, they do not recognize the adults and the youngest.” Let me inform you that the very rumors were at the times when I was a kid, and I am sure that they were and will be over the centuries, allegedly, the times have changed, today’s youth is degraded, we were not like them and so on. Not to give way to this “senile grunt”, we should realize that the respect of our children towards us is direct proportion to our respect for them. The kids are “recording” not only our words and expressions, but also our behavior and attitude.
And the most importantly, the base of our harmonious relations should be our respect for the law. The fact that European or American child knows its rights is definitely a positive thing. We should not inject nihilism into the children at home and at school” that everything is a lie, everybody is cheating and you should also cheat,” but rather to help him stay within the rules of the game in the relationship with parents and teachers. Naturally, the latter should also stay within the range of the rules. It will be helpful for the child’s future life not to cope with illegalities, rather than confronting them from the position of principle and the law. Of course, the role of the school is exceptional here, however, this is a topic for separate discussion.
…Early this year, the Committee on Adolescents has announced a reprimand to school girl living in the Bryansk region, Russia, who did not hide her non-traditional sexual orientation. Later, the punishment was canceled. In Russia, an administrative liability is exercised for “gay propaganda”, in the form of up to 100 thousand rubles penalty. In this case, the 9th grade school girl did not get the penalty because she was under 16 years of age. The topic of sexual orientation is a “related topic”, which is so liked by advocates of the Customs Union and the “national identity”, which also requires to be discussed separately.
In the context of the rights of the child, it should be only mentioned here that if the child hides his/her sexual orientation, he/she may as well be able to hide that he/she is short-sighted, or left-handed, or that he/she is thinking not like the majority. As a result, we have weak-willed citizens. Just the kind of citizens we have.
ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
