HUMAN RIGHTS

DO CHILDREN HAVE A RIGHT TO BE LOVED?

It seems obvious that every child should be loved but the question is if it is a human right? Many international declarations adopted it as a human right (Israel, Mozambic, Japan). There is strong evidence that all children need to be loved in order to develop and flourish. This suggests that a right to be loved should be up there with rights to food, safe drinking water, shelter, health care, education. There are some philosophical objections to the idea that this should be a right. One of the strongest such arguments can be found in Immanuel Kant’s work: he suggested that since our emotions are not under our direct conscious control, it would be absurd to say that anyone had a duty to love someone else. However, there are ways in which we can indeed bring about and cultivate parental love. Firstly we can give ouselves reasons to love or deliberately put ourselves in situations where we can feel the parental love. Could children accuse parents of denying them their human right if they don’t feel loved? if it is a case of discipline, then no because they need discipline as they learn to navigate the world. Still, it would be better to recognize that it is morally good for children to grow up in a loving environment. However, there are millions of children in institutional care without parents.  That being loved is a right means that children in institutional care are entitled to receiving this love without having to ask for it.