Second-Class Citizens in the Making

Abstract

Despite the guarantees stemming from the ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, children of different social classes in Chile are accorded differential protection of their basic human rights. Two cases of police violence in Santiago de Chile in 2001—a political protest demonstration by high-school students and a raid on a shelter for street children accused of kidnapping—highlight these discrepancies. Both cases received wide media attention, but the representations of the children involved were not the same. Whereas the students received the support of the media and the public for their political action, the street children were treated as criminals. The differences suggest that perceived social status determines the value assigned by society to the two categories of children and consequently the rights and protections they enjoy. In the process, the street children are being turned into second-class citizens. Restructuring of the government's approach to dealing with them is imperative.