It takes a village, part umpteen

One more in a series of allegations against aid workers and peacekeepers: UN discounts charges of widespread refugee abuse. As we’ve noted recently, those who have custody of the weak are subject to peculiar temptations, and people who intend to give into the temptations even seek out such positions. Modern social policy is based on the technocratic assumption that traditional informal institutions for caring for the weak and defenseless—like families—can’t be trusted because of the lack of regular external supervision and control. Who knows what some random person (e.g., a parent) is going to do with the children he finds in his power? Isn’t it better to put it all on a regular basis subject to public control? Hence the demand for children’s rights, which is essentially a demand that children be disentangled from family and other traditional social relationships and committed to the custody of the bureaucratic state. Who though will guard the guardians?
Posted by Jim Kalb at October 25, 2002 08:23 AM | Send