Lithuania's children's policy in the period of transition

Abstract

The article investigates the welfare regime of the free Lithuanian Republic from the perspective of children's policy. The main principles of the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child -child protection, child provision and child participation -serve as indicators for the level of child orientation. The article analyses legal and institutional issues related to the implementation of the Convention in Lithuania in the first decade of Independence 1990 -2001. Furthermore, it compares Lithuanian policy with the three welfare regimes identified by Esping-Andersen. Our results indicate that Lithuanian policy shows a low level of child orientation and that the Lithuanian welfare regime does not correspond to any of the welfare regimes in Esping-Andersen's typology. Lithuania still shows traits from the former Soviet regime. The new liberal extreme market orientation is not modified by social support institutions, and is combined with conservative ideologies on women and family.

A Review of Children’s Rights Literature Since the Adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child

“…Davis and Powell (2003), together with other authors (e.g. Kabasinskaite and Bak, 2006;Woll, 2001), point to two important aspects of implementing the UNCRC in child care policy. First, state parties should take steps to provide child services and child care facilities (access to child services).…”

“…Alongside the changing position of children in society, the relations within the family changed as well, with children as autonomous bearers of rights, parents having the duty to fulfil them and government having the responsibility to support parents (Howe and Covell, 2003). Government policy on childhood was to ensure children's personhood status and dignity (Kabasinskaite and Bak, 2006;Levesque, 1996;Melton, 2005a;Woll, 2001), leading to a 'defamiliarization' of policy towards children (Therborn, 1996). This shift in parenting has been an important concern for scholars in children's rights.…”

Alcohol-related child maltreatment

“…As a former Soviet bloc country, it still has some traits from the old Soviet regime. The current extreme market orientation is not modified by social support institutions and is combined with conservative ideologies about women and family ( Kabašinskaitė & Bak, 2006 ). The liberal approach is growing strong roots in the Lithuanian welfare state system ( Aidukaite, Moskvina, & Skucienė, 2016 ).…”

The role of service delivery non governmental organisations in policy reform

“…Poverty is a key factor in low-income countries but other reasons are lack of political will, poor gatekeeping and a failure to redirect funding from institutions to community service development (UNICEF, 2006;Bilson and Harwin, 2003;Fox and Götestam, 2003;Bilson and Cox, 2007). Hostile public attitudes to community care for children with disabilities, and uncertain understanding of, and commitment to child participatory rights (Kabasinkaite and Bak, 2006) have also constrained the reform process.…”