Human Rights at Home Blog

The US and China’s One-Child Policy Loosens; Women’s Equality Will be Key to its Success

 

Co-Editor Cindy Soohoo writes on a shift in China's one child policy.  Tomorrow's post will discuss the differences between US - China policy in both motivation and social policy in addressing women's equality.

Prof. Soohoo writes:

After years of pursuing a one-child policy, China is taking steps to try to increase its birth rate, but is finding that it’s not so easy.   The current policy changes respond to demographic shifts caused by a low birth rate and aging population.  The prospect of a smaller labor pool saddled with supporting an aging population has fueled fears that China will “get old before it gets rich.”  Promoting women’s equality may be the key to addressing China’s labor and population problem.

China’s one child policy has been criticized for employing coercive tactics that violate women’s reproductive autonomy and for triggering a gender imbalance in the population due to a historic societal preference for sons.  Human rights bodies have denounced abusive tactics employed pursuant to the policy including forced abortion and sterilization. They have also emphasized the need to address the structural causes of son preference by eliminating gender stereotypes and promoting women’s equality.  The same emphasis on improving the status of women, including eliminating barriers faced by working mothers, will go a long way to support China’s current efforts to encourage births and economic growth.

Since China’s current 1.5 birth rate is substantially below the 2.1 rate needed to maintain a stable population, last year it decided to allow parents a second child if one of the parents was an only child (the prior policy allowed only two children if both parents were only children).   But the number of couples that applied to have second children is much lower than expected. This is especially true in urban areas like Shanghai.  At the end of 2014, only 5% of couples in Shanghai eligible to have a second baby applied to do so.

Chinese reticence to take advantage of the new policy is consistent with regional trends.  East Asia has the lowest fertility rate in the world, and some demographers say that China’s birth rates would have declined even without the one child policy.  There are dire forecasts about the future of Japan, where the birth rate is currently 1.4, and social security costs are projected to be 24.4% of the country’s GDP by 2026.  Last summer, South Korea’s birth rate dropped to 1.19 leading a government research service to declare that at current rates, its population will be extinct by 2750. 

Reports suggest for the growing middle class in these countries the cost of child-rearing, including housing, child-care and education have become prohibitively expensive.  An official in Shanghai cited the high cost of raising children and the negative impact of having a child on a woman’s career development as driving the lack of interest in having a second child.

Promoting women’s equality and economic opportunity can make it easier for families to bear the costs of larger families and expand the work force.  But often parents face substantial hurdles in the workplace, forcing women to choose between work and motherhood.  In Japan 70% of women stop working after having a child due in part to inflexible work hours and lack of male participation in household chores and children rearing.  And if they return to work they end up in low wage, part-time or contract positions.  The loss of female talent has led economists to suggest that closing the gender gap could substantially improve Japan’s GDP.

Japan and South Korea have funded match-making and dating services to address their low birth rates.  Adopting family friendly policies that encourage and support working parents could have a greater long term impact.   Japan’s prime minister is reportedly considering a number of policies to encourage women to stay in the workforce after having children, including increasing the availability of affordable child care, changing tax rules favoring single income couples, encouraging more flexible hours in the workplace, and encouraging companies to employ more women in senior positions.   

The current demographic pressures may cause China to further relax regulation of family sizes. But, if China is serious about increasing its birth rate and increasing the labor pool it must ensure that women have equal economic opportunities and working families have the support they need.

 

 

What the Convention Against Torture Can Teach Us About Children's Rights

Chelsea Guffy is a student in CUNY's International Women's Human Rights Clinic.  She is a student of Cindy Soohoo.

Ms. Guffy writes: 

The United States finds itself on the sidelines as the world celebrates the 25^th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (“CRC”). The U.S. is one of only three nations that hasn’t ratified the CRC.  Opponents to the treaty claim that the U.S. doesn’t need to ratify the treaty because our laws sufficiently protect children.  A recent review of the U.S. by the UN Committee Against Torture highlighting the treatment of children in adult jails and prisons, however, proves this assumption to be tragically inaccurate.

 In November, the United States told the U.N. Committee Against Torture that 7,400 children under 18 are currently incarcerated in adult jails and prisons.  As detailed in a report submitted to the Committee by the International Women’s Human Rights Clinic at CUNY Law School, children incarcerated in adult facilities experience multiple human rights violations. Among the most gut-wrenching consequences of locking children up in adult facilities are staggeringly high levels of physical and sexual abuse.  In a survey conducted by IWHR and the Michigan ACLU, more than a third of children in Michigan prisons reported sexual assault by staff, other prisoners, or both.  A recent DOJ report investigating conditions at New York’s Riker’s Island jail exposed systematic abuse and extremely high levels of staff violence against incarcerated 16-18 years olds. The report noted that correctional officials purposely beat youth "off camera" and that civilian teachers contribute to the culture of violence by “looking the other way” so as to not witness the violence they know is happening.  Because youth are often smaller and more vulnerable and less likely to report abuse, they are at greater risk of being victims of violence in adult facilities. 

 

In response, the Committee released recommendations that address the most egregious rights violations that occur when children are funneled into a system designed to punish adults. The Committee recommended that the U.S. end life without parole sentences and the use of solitary confinement for children, adopt standards prohibiting the use of tasers on children and separate children from adult prisoners. 

 

The Committee also recommended that the U.S. implement international minimum standards for juvenile justice and the protection of juveniles deprived of liberty. These standards acknowledge that because of their age and vulnerability, children experience deprivation of liberty acutely.  They emphasize that incarceration should be a last resort and that rehabilitative alternatives should be explored.  When children are incarcerated they are entitled to special protection that includes an absolute prohibition of incarceration with adults but also requires that facilities and staff be appropriate for children.  The standards also recognize that children are still growing and have an incredible capacity for change.  They emphasize the need for educational and other programming as well as the need to help children maintain their contacts with their families and communities.  Simply put the standards recognize that children are not adults and subjecting them to adult criminal punishment violates their rights.

 

Adopting the international standard minimum rules to safeguard children in conflict with the law would go a long way to end the most egregious abuses in the criminal justice system.  But there are deeper issues at play when a nation’s treatment of its children becomes an issue addressed by the U.N. Committee Against Torture.  If children’s rights were truly embraced by the U.S., children would not be funneled into adult penal systems in the first place where traumatizing acts of violence and deprivation occur.  The treatment of children in conflict with the law in the U.S. reveals deep flaws in our understanding of children’s rights and the retroactive protections afforded by the Committee are insufficient to address the roots of this injustice.

 

The CRC, however, explicitly articulates that deprivation the liberty of a child should be the last resort and provides measures for protecting the rights of children in detention. The holistic and comprehensive approach to children’s rights embodied by the CRC would require the United States to deeply examine its treatment of children in a way that brings compassion and accountability to the conversation. It’s time for the United States to commit to building a brighter future for our children by ratifying the Convention on the Rights of the Child.