Study On The Legitimacy Of Children As The Subject Of The Right To Freedom Of Opinion And Expression

The right to freedom of opinion and expression is a basic international human right.However,children are disputed as subjects of human rights and freedom of opinion and expression.The focus of controversy is whether children conform to the standard to be the subject of rights.This study adopts the method of speculative literature research focusing on the core issue of "whether children are the subject of freedom of opinion and expression".The author studies the issue of children's right to freedom of opinion and expression on the basis of rights theory's understanding of people and children.In fact,it is an analysis of how people interpret the relationship between children and rights,and how to understand and treat children and adults' understanding of children on this basis.This study focuses on the need-based argumentation paradigm and demonstrates the legitimacy of children as the subject of the right to freedom of opinion and expression with the human rights theory,subject competence and inter-subject argumentation paradigm.Different rights theories have different understandings and interpretations of the nature of rights,and different understandings and definitions of the subject of rights.Through the analysis of the understanding of rights in claims-theory,the author reveals that the nature of claims as rights is consistent with the internal logic of human needs,and demonstrates that children can put forward claims to become the subject of rights,and the freedom of opinion and expression is the premise and guarantee for children to express their needs.From the disputes between claims-theory and entitlement-theory on the relationship between rights and obligations,the author analyses the relationship between rights and obligations which is generally considered to correspond to children's rights and obligations,reveals that children's obligations need children's rights as protection,children also fulfill their natural obligations,while freedom of opinion and expression and children's natural obligations are symbiotic,and demonstrates that children's rights take precedence over children's obligations.Then,starting from the argument between the will-theory and the interest-theory,the author analyses the relationship between free will,interest and human needs,reveals that children have the ability of rational choice,and clearly understand their own interests and the pursuit of life.They are autonomous actors,and fulfill the conditions of being the subject of rights.From this point of view,freedom of opinion and expression is the guarantee of children's autonomy.The author holds that freedom of opinion and expression is the basic right of children in education.The legitimacy of the right to freedom of opinion and expression in education is demonstrated by the recognition of the right of freedom of opinion and expression in education and the need of the right of freedom of opinion and expression in children's development.In addition,the author reveals the serious lack of children' s freedom of opinion and expression in education and its causes,in order to put forward that the realization of children's right to freedom of opinion and expression can be guaranteed in education by changing ideas,protecting children's freedom of thought and respecting children's multiple expressions and learning methods.