Fundamental Rights and Best Interests of the Child in Transnational Families

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacqueline Bhabha

This chapter examines the entitlements that child migrants have as a matter of international and domestic law, along with the reality behind these entitlements. It first explains how access to fundamental rights protection for young people without a government remains elusive before discussing how rightlessness impinges on the material and psychological well-being of adolescent migrants. It then considers two issues that complicate the enforcement of adolescent migrant rights: the relative importance of family unity as a factor in assessing the best interests of children, and the relevance of socioeconomic rights, including access to employment opportunities, in assessing an adolescent's best interests. It also explores the political pronouncements and practical realities regarding the rights of undocumented migrant adolescents and concludes with an assessment of how some states have interpreted their obligations to provide two important sets of human rights for migrant adolescents: access to education and right to health care.


Author(s):  
Sandra Winkler

In emergency situations, the people most affected are often those who are already vulnerable, and this certainly includes children. The “new normal” we are living in to defend ourselves against this tiny yet dangerous enemy has serious repercussions on children’s lives. This becomes even more evident if we think of those children who are doubly vulnerable – they are even more fragile because they live in conditions of particular hardship when they live outside their family, have a disability, or live in poverty. Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, we have witnessed the proliferation of numerous initiatives by various national and international children’s rights institutions, which have called for urgent measures to protect children’s rights. At this precise moment, the concept of the child’s best interests is also reinterpreted as a result of a reasonable compression of certain children’s rights and the prevalence of others. The present paper will attempt an analytical reconstruction of children’s fundamental rights by analyzing how these rights have changed during the pandemic. In fact, it is necessary to know if and/or how much have the rights of minors changed as a result of the emergency. The second part of the paper is dedicated to the question of which children’s rights will be most compromised or changed in the post-Covid-19 era. In reflecting on the inevitable consequences that the pandemic will leave on the delicate balance of the development of children’s rights, the author will offer some proposals on how to contain the encountered difficulties.


Law and World ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 44-50

Best interests of the child – a concept serving for the realization and protection of the child’s fundamental rights – has been a subject for debates since its formation. While indeterminate and flexible to each single case by its nature, it is still deemed to be one of the most effective tools with regard to children rights law. The present Article aims at illustrating the value the concept should be accorded to, together with the degree of its implementation in the legislation of Georgia, rather than concentrating on the notion’s indeterminacy. For this reason, the Article will demonstrate meaning, importance, place of the best interests of the child at both – international and local levels.


2018 ◽  
Vol 51 ◽  
pp. 01015
Author(s):  
Inga Kudeikina ◽  
Karina Palkova

The right to health is one of the human fundamental rights. In present socio-legal area in health security issues, the human as an unconditional obedient patient, transforms into medical practitioner's associate, actively participating in all discussions of issues, which affect his health and executable medical manipulations. The human from medical object has turned into the medical subject. As exceptions can be mentioned persons who, for objective reasons, are not able to exercise their rights in full. One of such person group is children. Children have no capability to exercise their rights themselves. Therefore it is important to understand whether the volume of child's right is equal to the volume of adult's rights. Conditionally, we can say that in the stage of exercising the right, children depend on their representatives. The article will provide information on the issues, which affect child's right to health in context of ensuring the best interests of the child in Latvia according to the local and the European Union legal documents. In addition, the article will show the mechanism for dispute resolving, which may occur between a medical institution (doctor) and a person, who represents the child in Latvia. Both international and national legal acts stipulate that a child requires a special care, which includes ensuring the best interests of the child. It is essential that the concept “best interests of the child” is not defined in legislation and in all cases it is subject to interpretation of the adopter of the law (the user). On the fact, how fully the child's natural or legal guardians will defend the interests of the child, depends observation of the child's fundamental right – right to health. To find the answers to the current research questions descriptive, analytical, deduction-induction methods, etc. are used.


2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-218
Author(s):  
Mark Klaassen ◽  
Peter Rodrigues

The best interests of the child should be a primary consideration in all actions concerning children. This cornerstone of international children’s rights has been codified in Article 24(2) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. In eu family reunification law, the best interests of the child are mentioned in Directive 2003/86/ec on the right to family reunification. However, in the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union, this concept is not systematically applied in the various types of family reunification cases. In this contribution it is argued that, although the contexts of family reunification cases may be different, from the perspective of the diverse international obligations of the Member States, it would be preferable if the Court systematically involved the best interests of the child concept in all family reunification cases.


2003 ◽  
Vol 29 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 269-299
Author(s):  
Janna C. Merrick

Main Street in Sarasota, Florida. A high-tech medical arts building rises from the east end, the county's historic three-story courthouse is two blocks to the west and sandwiched in between is the First Church of Christ, Scientist. A verse inscribed on the wall behind the pulpit of the church reads: “Divine Love Always Has Met and Always Will Meet Every Human Need.” This is the church where William and Christine Hermanson worshipped. It is just a few steps away from the courthouse where they were convicted of child abuse and third-degree murder for failing to provide conventional medical care for their seven-year-old daughter.This Article is about the intersection of “divine love” and “the best interests of the child.” It is about a pluralistic society where the dominant culture reveres medical science, but where a religious minority shuns and perhaps fears that same medical science. It is also about the struggle among different religious interests to define the legal rights of the citizenry.


2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 367-379 ◽  
Author(s):  
Régine Debrosse ◽  
Megan E. Cooper ◽  
Donald M. Taylor ◽  
Roxane de la Sablonnière ◽  
Jonathan Crush

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