Children's Rights Law and Early Childhood

Middle childhood is a crucial phase of human development, and it involves enormous transitions in social behaviour, cognition, and motivations. There is variation in how its scope is defined – it is roughly considered to be between six to 12 years. Children’s social lives become more complex, they spend more time with peers and begin formal schooling in industrialised countries. Yet middle childhood is frequently an overlooked phase. It is often amalgamated with either research on early childhood or on adolescence. The UN Committee on the rights of the child has produced general comments on rights in early childhood, and in adolescence, but none on rights in middle childhood. In this chapter, it is argued that greater attention is needed for children’s rights in middle childhood as a distinct phase. This is in particular analysed in accordance with the general principles of the UN Convention on the rights of the child.