ordination of children - a human rights violation?

dinidu de alwis of chappafine blog wrote a post yesterday entitled "mass human rights violation by buddhist monks" criticizing ordination of children. i also think ordination children to be a human rights violation. however imo (as i said there) he muddied the argument by bringing in unwarranted comparisons with barbaric practice of forced terrorist child recruitment and unsubstantiated allegations about sexual abuse.

clarity of argument is important. a rights violation should not be measured in relation to other rights violations, even if such comparisons are possible. (in this case i don't think there is any comparison between the fate of a young monk and a ltte child recruit.) nor is it logically correct to condemn a widespread practice based on the actions of a very few (if any) who may engage in sexual abuse. even the scale of the ordinations should not matter much.

i consider ordination of children to be a human rights violation because such ordinations commit the children to rules of behavior and a path of life before they are able to fully understand or to freely decide on, the implications of such rules and that path.

as i understand in theory monks can leave at anytime, but in practice it would be a very difficult (in some cases almost impossible) decision to make, given the inertia, prevailing culture, and other economic opportunities available. when i was in my twenties i gave up my entrepreneurial activities and started on a 'normal' career due to various personal reasons, intending to get back after 5 years. however when the time came, i found it hard to give up a clear socially accepted career path and regular income for the risky business of being my own boss in pursuit of my dreams. it took me two extra years to make the decision. so i can understand the difficulty facing a monk who wants to lead a normal life after being ordained and educated from a young age to be a monk. if we have a system like in thailand where supposedly a majority of young men get ordained for a short period this would not be a problem. unfortunately that is not the case here. in other words imo an ordained child is trapped in a way of life without his informed consent and that is a violation of his rights.

i know that there haven’t been any sort of major objections to this practice. on the contrary lot of highly educated and respected buddhist monks (most of whom were ordained as children) support it (whether they are political or apolitical does not make a difference). so do vast majority of buddhist laymen i know. what i have not seen is a proper justification.

that is why (as i said in reply to referred post). i would really welcome a properly argued justification of child ordination from buddhists in blogosphere.

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btw i am not a buddhist. i was bought up as a roman catholic by a non practicing catholic mother and a non practicing buddhist father, and was more or less an atheist from my teens. you may gather what i think of religions in general (including buddhism), and impossibility of constructing a secular universally valid moral code, from some of my earlier posts. this one for instance.