The Machel Study: Dilemmas of cultural sensitivity and universal rights of children.

The study prepared for the United Nations (UN) by Mm. Graca Machel is the first initiative to provide a global and coordinated approach to the situation of children in armed conflict. The central importance of the document is its attempt to reduce children's vulnerability to the conditions of violent conflict, through the implementation of proposals that would bind UN member states and parties to armed conflict to carry out certain practices aimed at the protection of the young. Mother significant contribution is its call for culturally appropriate forms of intervention and rehabilitation for child survivors. In this article, we comment on these recommendations and go on to raise 3 points. First, although supporting the humanitarian intent of the UN Study, we caution that it has the potential to promote the globalization of ideas about childhood that originate in modem western societies. These ideas may or may not be appropriate representations of the frames of childhood and child mentality that exist in ...