scholarly journals Voluntary vaccination: the pandemic effect

Legal Studies ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 279-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Cave

Justification of a voluntary vaccination policy in England and Wales rests on tenuous foundations. Two arguments against voluntary vaccination are gaining ground. The first is that globalisation necessitates preparedness strategies for pandemics. Assuming sufficient supply, compulsory vaccination of adults and children constitutes a potential policy option in the context of a severe, vaccine-preventable pandemic outbreak. The second argument is that children have a right to preventive medicine and thus to vaccination. The influence of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and its emphasis on parents as the trustees of their children's best interests, and the increasingly global nature of our collective and individual responsibilities with respect to the transmission of vaccine-preventable disease present challenges to the right to refuse vaccination on our own behalf and on behalf of our children. Exploring methods of compulsion and persuasion utilised across Europe, the USA and Australia, this paper argues that necessity and proportionality must be reassessed, and national public health law and policy setting out a graduated and proportionate approach to compulsory vaccination developed as a matter of priority.

2020 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-215
Author(s):  
Anne Egan

Maintaining a relationship between parents and children following the breakdown of a marriage or relationship can be fraught with difficulties, particularly where acrimony exists between parents. This article explores the right of a non-custodial parent to have access to their child under Irish law and discusses the results of an interview-based study undertaken by the author using qualitative research methods. The interviewees in the study included practitioners as well as separated, divorced and unmarried fathers and mothers who outlined their views on access and the study found that the majority of non-custodial parents had some level of access to their child. The article further outlines the author’s experience of successfully applying to attend family court as a bona fide researcher and discusses some of the results of observations in those courts which reinforced the results of the interview-based study. Article 9(3) of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) states that in the event of separation of parents, it is the right of the child to maintain personal relations and contact with both parents. Article 7(1) of the Convention further supports the right of a child to be cared for by his or her parents. These articles have proved useful for fathers’ rights campaigners who advocate that they should have more contact with their children post-separation. The Convention, however, while ratified by Ireland, has not yet been incorporated into Irish law. The article concludes by examining whether the incorporation of the Convention would advance the rights of Irish children to maintain a relationship with their parents, unless such a relationship would be contrary to the children’s best interests. In light of this, this article examines the proposed wording of the Constitutional Referendum on Children which was published in early 2010 and assesses what impact the passing of such a referendum would have on children’s rights in Ireland.


Author(s):  
Elena Arce Jiménez

Resumen: Las dificultades para ser escuchado del menor extranjero en cualquier procedimiento que le afecte ponen de relieve las deficiencias generales existentes en nuestro ordenamiento jurídico para hacer efectivos los derechos de los que son titulares las personas menores de edad, sean extranjeras o no. Se analiza en primer lugar el artículo 12 de la Convención de los Derechos del niño, las condiciones imprescindibles para para hacer efectivo el derecho a ser escuchado y la conexión que existe entre ese derecho y la consideración primordial de su interés superior. A continuación se hace un repaso de la regulación española de los procedimientos de repatriación de menores extranjeros no acompañados a la luz del interés superior del menor y su derecho a ser escuchado. Abstract: The current challenges that migrant children face to have their right to be heard fulfilled and respected, put in evidence the general deficiencies of our legal system ensuring  the effective enjoyment of children rights, irrespective if the children in question are migrant or not. At the outset, article12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its content is analysed, including the essential requirements for an effective implementation and enjoyment of the right to be heard and its linkages with the best interest of the child as the primary consideration. An analysis of the Spanish regulations under the return procedures for unaccompanied foreignchildren is also provided in light of the respect of the best interests of the child and their right to be heard.


Author(s):  
Bantekas Ilias

This chapter examines Article 7 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). The first instrument to specifically address the rights of children with disabilities was the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).The CRC recognizes four key guiding principles that permeate our understanding and construction of all pertinent rights related to children. These principles are: a) the best interests of the child (Article 3 CRC); b) respect for the views of the child (Article 12 CRC); c) the right to life, survival, and development (Article 6 CRC); and d) non-discrimination (Article 2 CRC). The CRC was also the first instrument specifically to address the rights of children with disabilities, particularly in Article 2(1) (non-discrimination) and Article 23 (general welfare for disabled children). However, Article 7 CRPD and other children-related rights in the CRPD (eg Article 23) constitute a significant improvement to Article 23 CRC.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 203-223
Author(s):  
Julia SlothNielsen ◽  
Rachel SlothNielsen

The review concerns the position of the identification as ‘mother’ or ‘father’ of trans persons who give birth. This matter has occupied courts in the United Kingdom, Germany, Brazil and Sweden recently, and could well arise in South Africa, our country of origin. The first part of the discussion relates to a claim of a trans man who gave birth to be registered as the father of the child. The legal situation in South Africa and the United Kingdom is compared, and particular focus is placed on the meaning of ‘mother’. A second issue for discussion relates to the right of the child born to a trans person to birth registration, notably, what the child’s interests are in relation to his or her parent’s identification details on his or her birth certificate. We conclude that the gender identity of the trans parent must be the primary factor determining his or her registration as a parent on the birth certificate, and that this solution also better serves the child’s best interests.


2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert D Truog

Savulescu and colleagues have provided interesting insights into how the UK public view the ‘best interests’ of children like Charlie Gard. But is best interests the right standard for evaluating these types of cases? In the USA, both clinical decisions and legal judgments tend to follow the ‘harm principle’, which holds that parental choices for their children should prevail unless their decisions subject the child to avoidable harm. The case of Charlie Gard, and others like it, show how the USA and the UK have strikingly different approaches for making decisions about the treatment of severely disabled children.


2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (8) ◽  
pp. 552-555
Author(s):  
Melanie Forster

Recent reports in Australia have suggested that some medical practitioners are refusing to treat children who have not been vaccinated, a practice that has been observed in the USA and parts of Europe for some years. This behaviour, if it is indeed occurring in Australia, has not been supported by the Australian Medical Association, although there is broad support for medical practitioners in general having the right to conscientious objection. This paper examines the ethical underpinnings of conscientious objection and whether the right to conscientious objection can be applied to the refusal to treat unvaccinated children. The implications of such a decision will also be discussed, to assess whether refusal to treat unvaccinated children is ethically justifiable. The best interests of both existing and new patients are crucially important in a doctor’s practice, and the tension between these two groups of patients are contemplated in the arguments below. It is argued that on balance, the refusal to treat unvaccinated children constitutes unjustified discrimination.


Legal Ukraine ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 14-23
Author(s):  
Vasyl Datsenko

On today’s international law, there is a broad consensus on the idea of ​​those who want to talk about all the children and the importance of guilty mother’s interests. Buti and the court at the right are guilty of the arrest of nikrashchikh іnterestіv ditini. Vrakhovuchi is the issue of clear legislative regulation of the law and practice of legal practice of securing terminology of the interest of children, the author has analyzed the law of international law. At the statutory international legal order, there is a need for ECHRL, in some ways there is a lack of food for the protection of interested children in case of a viable dispute about it. Analyzed the keys to the position of the court regarding disputes regarding the child’s privacy Order No. 14 (2013) of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child «On the right of a child to receive respect for the rest of the world». Вased on a systematic analysis of the provisions of General Comment No. 14, the author identified two blocks of key positions that the court must adhere to when resolving a child dispute to ensure its best interests: 1) basic positions; 2) the procedure for assessing and determining the best interests of the child. The Committee underlines that the child’s best interests is a threefold concept: a substantive right; A fundamental, interpretative legal principle; A rule of procedure. Another main point is the idea of how to apply it to each child individually. One more fundamental principle of the application of the Convention is that the State has no discretion to determine whether to prioritize the best interests of the child and give them due weight in any action. When assessing and determining the best interests of the child in order to make a decision on a specific measure, the following steps should be followed: (a) First, within the specific factual context of the case, find out what are the relevant elements in a best-interests assessment, give them concrete content, and assign a weight to each in relation to one another; (b) Secondly, to do so, follow a procedure that ensures legal guarantees and proper application of the right. As a result of this scientific research, the author has come to the conclusion that providing the best interests of the child are not universal. It must be obtained by the court as a result of identifying and assessing the individual needs of the child, taking into account the specifics of the subject matter of the case being considered by the court. If the court correctly identified and assessed such needs, followed certain legal guarantees, then the decision taken as a result of the case should be considered to be made in the best interests of the child. Key words: concept of the best interests of the child, family law relations, evaluation and determination of the best interests of the child, legal guarantees.


Author(s):  
V. Dorina

The article is devoted to ensuring the best interest of the child and his right to education. Attention is paid to the problems associated with the implementation of this right by various groups of children, depending on their social status and ethnic origin. The author draws attention to the implementation of the law under study in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has exacerbated the problems of gender inequality, the quality of educational services, as well as access to them. The need for certain actions on the part of the state is indicated, in particular, making changes to the curricula to bring them in line with the recommendations of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in order to realize the right to education of the child from the standpoint of ensuring the best interest.


Res Publica ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Archard ◽  
Suzanne Uniacke

AbstractThis article provides a philosophical analysis of a putative right of the child to have their expressed views considered in matters that affect them. Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 is an influential and interesting statement of that right. The article shows that the child’s ‘right to a voice’ is complex. Its complexity lies in the problem of contrasting an adult’s normative power of choice with a child’s weighted views, in the various senses in which we might consider the child’s views, and in the questions of how to weight those views and how their weighting makes a practical difference in coming to a decision. In so doing we criticise other accounts that simply regard a child’s views as having consultative value. We also make better sense of how we might weight a child’s views. The philosophical issues addressed in the article carry implications for how we might understand Article 12 that are not satisfactorily identified and addressed in the voluminous literature on Article 12 within childhood studies. These issues also have implications for how we might understand the distinction between adults and children in respect of powers of personal choice. We conclude by emphasising the importance and value of the right that Article 12 seeks to formally identify.


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