Justice as Recognition and Restitution

Sor Juana's legacy includes recognition of how institutional systems—religious authority, colonial structures, gender hierarchies—systematically denied her and women like her recognition as knowers and moral agents. Justice for children similarly requires more than preventing future harm; it demands recognizing and repairing historical wrongs. Children have been systematized exploited through slavery, child labor, forced assimilation, gender-based violence, and institutional abuse. Justice as recognition means centering children's own accounts of these experiences, validating their suffering, and refusing to minimize historical harms. Restitution includes material reparations, institutional accountability, curriculum changes that teach truthful histories, and structural reforms that prevent repetition. This framework moves beyond individual legal cases to address systemic injustices. For Indigenous children separated from families, for children in countries with histories of trafficking, for children subjected to discriminatory education systems—justice requires acknowledging the specific harms inflicted by institutions and power structures. Through Sor Juana's model of demanding recognition, we insist that children's rights include the right to have historical wrongs acknowledged and addressed through transformative justice approaches.