Child Protection: Children’s Rights in Theory and Practice (edX)

Across the world, children are at riskfrom violence, abuse, exploitation, and neglect. Conflict and natural disasters have forced millions to flee their homes and confront the dangers of migration and displacement. Commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking, child labor, and child marriage are problems in many countries. At-risk children and adolescents need their rights enforcedif we are to protect them from harm and to ensure that they develop to their full potential.

Led by Jacqueline Bhabha, Research Director of the Harvard FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, this course will teach you the causes and consequences of child protection failures. You will consider the strategies, international laws, standards, and resources required to protect all children. You will be able to link legal frameworks and child-rights approaches to the work of policymakers, lawyers, health workers, educators, law enforcement, and social workers. Learners will come to understand how they can ensure the protection of children and apply child protection strategies to their own work.

Join Harvard faculty, practitioners, and a global community of learners to master a child-centered systems approach to preventing and responding to violence, exploitation, and abuse against children.

Syllabus

Every Child’s Right to Protection

The Legal Foundation of Child Protection
Defining and Measuring Child Protection

Violence Against Children

Causes and Consequences of Violence
Strategies for Preventing and Addressing Violence
Examples of Preventing and Addressing Violence

Children and the Law

Children in Conflict with the Law
Children in Contact with the Law
Migrant Children and the Law

A System’s Approach to Child Protection

Components of a Child Protection System
Identifying Problems in Child Protection System
Global and Local Action to Strengthen Child Protection Systems