Review of the legislation and literature on the ethical aspects of researches concerned with the welfare of children and the violation of children’s rights

The tendency of development of the social studies concerned with childhood is that the childhood is increasingly recognized as an independent social phenomenon, and children are involved as respondents in the researches. The children’s welfare, their positive and negative experiences become the subject of the social studies. The increasing involvement of juvenile respondents in the social studies leads to the urgent need to regulate the ethical aspects of such researches. This article reviews the literature and the legislation regarding the rights of children as participants of the social studies. For the first time the special status of children involved in the social researches was emphasized in the 1970-s in the United States. The opinions of children as research participants have a particular value and should be considered in the social studies dealing with the children as a social group, as ratified by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Currently the legal regulation of the rights of children as research participants in the Russian Federation is not executed. When planning the study, researchers are guided by international and national laws, covering children''s rights: the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Constitution of the Russian Federation, the Federal Law “Concerning the guardianship and custody". At the same time, there are complex ethical researches, such as researches concerned with the violations of children’s rights. In these cases it is advisable to follow international ethical guidelines and information resources. The research protocol should include the information about all the possible risks for children and the procedures of possible responses of researchers in cases of violation of children’s rights. Due to the growing number of researches involving children in Russia it is extremely important to develop the ethics committees, competent in examining the social studies that involve children, as well as the national legislation regulating these issues.