NEW ARTICLE: Conceptualizing a Rights-based Framework for Public Institutions to Support Children

Jonathan Todres, “Conceptualizing a Rights-based Framework for Public Institutions to Support Children,” Harvard Law & Policy Review, 20(1): 147-176 (2025)

Abstract:

In law and policy and public discourse, children's interests are often pushed to the margins. Although children constitute more than twenty percent of the U.S. population, federal spending on children's programs is regularly below ten percent of the budget. Not only are children not a priority, but government agencies are also often not structured to account for and support the rights and healthy development of children. This article proposes a new framework, the VR3 model (Voice, Representation, Resources, and Remedies), which can help reform government institutions and agencies to be more supportive of children's rights and wellbeing. By developing policies and institutional structures and processes to implement the VR3 model, government agencies can reorient their work so that it better accounts for children's interests and supports the rights and healthy development of all children.

Full text available at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5839743