Protecting children in different contexts: exploring the value of rights and research

Many child‐focused civil society organisations (CSOs) working in Africa, Asia and South America have shifted from organising their work around children's needs to promoting their rights. The rights‐based frameworks they use are informed by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. This article explores the value of global rights. Ethnographic studies about the lives of young people and their transition into adulthood point to diversity of ideas about childhood in different parts of the world, raising questions about whether the idea of universal child rights can accommodate such varied worldviews. Yet CSOs have often failed to take account of this diversity in the way they use rights frameworks. Research by anthropologists about children in three situations ‐ at work, on the move and facing violence ‐ is used here to reveal the problems caused if rights frameworks are used without sufficient understanding of context and complexity.