Childhood, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, and Research: What Constitutes a 'Rights-Based' Approach?

This chapter adds to the discussion about the relationship between the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and childhood research by exploring what the application of a 'human rights-based approach', as commonly understood in the international human rights community, would mean if implemented systematically in the context of research with children. The implications of this are explored in relation to the three key chronological research stages: framing, conducting, and disseminating children's rights-based research. However, before drawing out the features of such research, it is necessary to define first what it is we understand by the term 'rights-based'.