Last M
Department of Anthropology, University College London, UK.
Disasters. 1994 Sep;18(3):192-202. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-7717.1994.tb00306.x.
Save the Children Fund in 1923 and UNICEF in 1990 both declared that children must come first in receiving relief. Whereas SCF's call was a corporate credo for the world, for use whenever disaster struck, UNICEF's was offered as a strategic policy document applicable at all times. In contrast, the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, as a legally-binding document in the field of human rights, omitted all reference to giving such priority to children. The reason for transforming the original credo is that the principle of 'children first', if it includes every child and is to be applied literally in the field, is not only impracticable but unacceptable in many cultures. The social value of a particular child's life--or of human life generally--is simply not an absolute, in all circumstances, in all cultures.
1923年的救助儿童会以及1990年的联合国儿童基金会都宣称，儿童在接受救济方面必须优先。救助儿童会的呼吁是面向全世界的企业信条，灾难发生时即可采用，而联合国儿童基金会的呼吁则是作为一份适用于任何时候的战略政策文件提出的。相比之下，1989年的《联合国儿童权利公约》作为人权领域具有法律约束力的文件，并未提及给予儿童这种优先地位。改变最初信条的原因是，“儿童优先”原则如果涵盖每一个儿童并要在实际中严格应用，不仅不切实际，而且在许多文化中也是不可接受的。特定儿童生命——或一般人类生命——的社会价值在所有情况下、所有文化中根本不是绝对的。
