AAAS Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program

AAAS Science and Human Rights Coalition

January 31 - February 1, 2013

About this Meeting

This meeting of the AAAS Science and Human Rights Coalition focused on the intersections between children's rights, science and technology. Participants learned about the rights of children set out in international declarations and treaties, including the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, and how this approach differs from others with which scientists, engineers and health professionals who study or work with children may be more familiar. Panels and workshops explored cutting edge issues including: new opportunities and challenges for research on children's rights; urgent children's rights issues in the United States on which science and technology could have an impact; the positive and negative effects of the Internet for protecting children's rights; and the implications of children's rights for research ethics and professional responsibility.

Agenda: view the complete agenda here.

Report: view the meeting report here.

Agenda

Listen to the Coalition meeting opening introduction.

Morning Plenary Session: Introduction to Children's Rights

The opening plenary introduced participants to the essential concepts in the international children's rights framework. What are children's rights? How does the children's rights perspective differ from other approaches to promoting child development? What is the place of children's rights in international human rights law? What is the legal status of these rights in the United States of America, which has ratified UN prohibitions against child soldiers and child trafficking but not the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child?

[listen to discussion]

Workshop: Introduction to Science, Technology and Human Rights

What is the human rights framework that guides the Science and Human Rights Coalition? This session provided an introduction to the international human rights framework, giving special attention to the connections of human rights to science and technology.

Workshop: Children's Rights in the United States

This session explored human rights issues confronting children in the United States, such as equitable education, juvenile justice and access to health care. Speakers who are connecting their own work on behalf of children in the United States to the international human rights frameworkdiscussed their experiences and the future possibilities they foresee.

[listen to the presentations]

Evening Plenary: Children's Rights in Scientific Research

Research involving children poses a special set of ethical questions, asking scientists to consider how to promote the best interests of children as a group while protecting them as individual research subjects. Similar questions arise in human rights: for example, a child's right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress informs and intersects with, but may at times conflict with, the right to informed consent and the right to actively participate in research that addresses children's rights. This plenary session explored these questions and identified ways in which the two approaches may expand and strengthen each other.   

[listen to the presentations]

Workshop: Human Rights Committees and Affinity Groups in Your Society

This interactive, cross-disciplinary roundtable discussionincluded Coalition leaders who have experience creating or working with human rights committees and affinity groups in their own associations. Presenters shared examples and offered mentorship to those who are thinking about starting a human rights committee or affinity group within their society. 

Workshop: Children's Rights Online

This session addressed issues related to the Internet and children's rights. Speakers discussed the opportunities new technologies offer for advancing children's rights, as well as the unique concerns for children involved in online communications. Examples include: use of the Internet by, and to stop, child traffickers; cyber bullying; online forums that reconnect children with their families after conflict or disaster; the tension between freedom of expression and the desire to protect children from harmful material online; and the impact of the Internet on children's access to education and public participation.

[listen to the presentations]

Closing Plenary: Researching Children's Rights: Innovations, Opportunities and Responsibilities

The children's rights framework relies heavily on monitoring and evaluation, and consequently, on scientific research and analysis. At the same time, the focus on children as rights holders and the necessity of their involvement suggests different approaches to researching children's rights issues.  A cross-disciplinary panel of researchers discussed their work at the forefront of human rights, including the opportunities and challenges involved. 

[listen to the presentations]
[listen to discussion]

Sponsorship

AAAS would like to thank the sponsors of the January 2013 Coalition meeting for their generous support. Sponsors include:

• American Educational Resource Association
• American Physical Society
• American Sociological Association
• American Statistical Association
• Association of American Geographers
• National Center for Science and Civic Engagement

(page updated 03/11/2013)