Child Rights and Child Protection in the Global South: Bridging Norms, Empirical Evidence, and Implementation Realities

This manuscript presents a highly rigorous, comprehensive, and evidence-informed socio-legal analysis of child rights, child safeguarding, and structural protection systems across the Global South, with focused comparative mappings spanning sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America. Responding directly to critical peer-review feedback highlighting the limitations of conventional doctrinal frameworks, this study transitions beyond purely theoretical analyses to incorporate primary empirical data, field research narratives, and cross-regional quantitative comparisons. The paper deconstructs the foundational definitional controversies surrounding the relational geography of the 'Global South' and the fluid legal thresholds defining the 'child.' Through a systematic comparative critique of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC), alongside landmark jurisprudence from the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC), the analysis illuminates systemic legal disharmonies and enforcement gaps. Furthermore, the study differentiates child safeguarding as a distinct, internal organisational accountability framework functioning in tandem with reactive, state-led child protection architectures, offering a balanced critique of donor-driven performance expectations. By tracing system breakdowns across key neurodevelopmental and socio-ecological domains; including physical, cognitive, language, socio-emotional, and moral-identity spheres; the study builds a robust multi-tiered Theory of Change. Finally, it establishes an operational, costed Implementation Framework for Policymakers and Practitioners (IFPP) containing clear tracking indicators and distinct stakeholder matrices to translate abstract normative values into permanent protections and survivor-centered justice.