Human Rights and the Status of Children as Victims in the Late Cold War

Abstract

This article argues that in the late 1970s the human rights movement recognised children as subjects in their own right, giving them their own voice. The author questions the claims that until recently the dominant view of victims and their suffering was adult-centric and that human rights and humanitarianism were two unrelated paradigms. In studying this process, the author offers a historiographical contribution that centres on the value of children as a way of gaining new insights into the Cold War and history in general.