To their own good? Children's rights and democratic education in Saxony and East Central Europe since 1924

In the upcoming years, the Hannah Arendt Institute for Totalitarianism Studies at TU Dresden (HAIT), will carry out the research project "To their own good? Children's rights and democratic education in Saxony and East Central Europe since 1924", funded by the Saxon State Ministry for Science, Culture and Tourism (SMWK).

Referring to the Geneva Declaration of the Rights of the Child, which is currently celebrating its 100th anniversary, the research project, led by Dr. Agnes Anna Arndt, will analyze the development of children's rights from 1924 to 2024 in their global, national and local interdependencies. Combining approaches from social, cultural and legal history with methods from digital humanities the project will address past and present challenges in child and youth welfare policy.

Designed as a historical research program, the project thus also aims at contributing to the current debates on children's rights, which have become increasingly important, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic and the wars in Ukraine and Israel. The HAIT assumes that a look into recent developments can help to find orientation in the current multiple crises.

At the same time, the project will expand knowledge about the rights and the protection of children and thus strengthen a pro-democratic political education. It will show which impulses can be gained from the historical examination of the development of children's rights for current challenges in child and youth welfare and how these impulses can help to improving the cultural education of politically responsible adolescents. "To their own good?" is part of the research field "Transformation research in an international comparative perspective".

This researcj project is financed by the Saxon State government out of the State budget approved by the Saxon State Parliament.