The OIC, Children’s Rights and Islam
As part of DIHR’s new theme on human rights and universality, Matters of Concern presents a series of papers discussing contemporary challenges to the legitimacy of universal human rights through analyses of key actors, dynamics and discourses.
This paper discusses the relationship between Islamic traditions and children's rights in OIC member states, with a particular focus on child labour and child soldiers.
The paper argues that for children's rights to gain local legitimacy in these contexts,transformation of domestic law and legal frameworks is the most effective andsustainable way.In this process, certainreligious andcultural traditions can beimportant tools to enhance children'srights in Muslim-majority countries, while others work against children's rights.
About the authors
Mahmood Monshipouri, Ph.D., is a Professor and Graduate Coordinator in the Department of International Relations at the San Francisco State University. He is also a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He recently authored Democratic Uprisings in the New Middle East: Youth, Technology, Human Rights, and US Foreign Policy (Paradigm Publishers, 2014). Additionally, he authored Terrorism, Security, and Human Rights: Harnessing the Rule of Law (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2012) and edited Human Rights in the Middle East: Frameworks, Goals, and Strategies (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2011). Currently, he is working on the project Social Change in the Post-Khomeini Iran.
Claire Kaufman is an undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley pursuing a BA Degree in Environmental Economics with an emphasis on sustainable infrastructure in developing countries, and a minor in Public Policy.
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