Globalising child rights, localising childhood governance: A comparative analysis of CRC implementation architectures

Abstract or summary

This article examines how commitments to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) are translated into different forms of childhood governance at the national level. Using qualitative comparative document analysis, the study compares New Zealand, Mexico, Indonesia, and Pakistan based on 12 public documents consisting of state party reports, concluding observations of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, as well as national and civil society monitoring sources. Grounding itself in the Theory of Practice Architectures, the study shows that although all four countries use the CRC as a shared normative framework, significant differences exist in institutional coordination, the relationship between child rights and planning and budgeting, monitoring systems, the recognition of child participation, and the distribution of accountability. The article asserts that the globalisation of child rights is more accurately understood as a process of diverse institutional translation rather than as a process of governance standardisation. Simultaneously, the study offers a governance-based framework for analysing how child rights are institutionalised within national policy and administrative systems.