Of Innocence and Autonomy: Children, Sex and Human Rights

Eric Heinze

Part 1 Constructing childhood - theory and history: the universal child?; historical constructions of childhood innocence - removing sexuality. Part 2 Legislating childhood - international and comparative perspectives: sexuality and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child; the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and British legislation on child abuse and sexuality; Russian children - the obscenity of political fantasy. Part 3 Abusing childhood - critical dimensions and practical consequences: punishing children and pleasuring adults - one, both or neither?; Lolita at the interface of obscenity - children and the right to free expression; childhood sexual abuse as a predictor of substance use and HIV/AIDS risk; behaviour among women at admission to prison. Part 4 Empowering childhood - awareness, development and education: sex education - child's right, parent's choice or state's obligation?; health and education - conflicting programmes for sex education; seeking a gendered adolescence - legal and ethical problems of puberty suppression among adolescents with gender dysphoria.