Children’s Right to Personal Security: the Foundation for a New Journal

Abstract

Building on the seminal work of pediatrician Henry Kempe and his successors in developing the modern field of child protection, The Kempe Center, The Kempe Foundation, and The Haruv Institute are sponsoring the publication of a new journal: International Journal on Child Maltreatment: Research, Policy, and Practice. Cross-cultural and interdisciplinary in scope and reader-friendly in style, IJCM is intended to advance the global development of a human rights perspective on the nature of childhood and the requisites for preservation and enhance children’s dignity as persons. More specifically, the articles in IJCM are designed to improve policy and practice related to the fulfillment of children’s right to personal security, including their physical safety, their sense of psychological security, and their access to resources sufficient to enable their survival and development. Because such interests are critical to protection of children’s personality (personhood), they have fundamental ethical and legal significance not only for children themselves but also for the promotion of community at all levels of society.