scholarly journals Juvenile Justitia and the protection of children’s rights in Europe: the practice of the European Court of Human Rights

2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (68) ◽  
pp. 167-185
Author(s):  
Mykola Bondaruk ◽  
Serhiy H. Melenko ◽  
Liubov Omelchuk ◽  
Liliya Radchenko ◽  
Anzhela Levenets
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Children's Rights ◽  
Children’S Rights ◽  
European Convention ◽  
Legal Tradition ◽  
Rights Of The Child ◽  
European Court ◽  
Analysis And Synthesis ◽  
The Status

The objective of the research is to analyze the main violations of children's rights within the European Convention on Human Rights to highlight the basic positions of the European Court of Human Rights ECHR on their protection, as well as to determine the advisability of applying the practice of this court by the European states. The methodological basis of the work consists of different methods, such as analysis and synthesis, dialectical, logical-legal and formal-legal. The result of this work allowed identifying the role of the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights as a source of European law and its importance for the protection of the rights of the child, interpreting the legal positions established in the pertinent decisions of the said court and comparing them, to justify the need for your careful observation of the practice of the ECHR in the application of the law. It is concluded that the practice of the ECHR is recognized as a source of law in most states. And although the Ukrainian legal tradition does not recognize the status of judicial precedent as a source of law, such precedents are actively used in everyday legal activity.

The Best Interests of the Child

2020 ◽  
pp. 203-221
Author(s):  
Wouter Vandenhole ◽  
Gamze Erdem Türkelli
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Family Law ◽  
Children's Rights ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Children’S Rights ◽  
Best Interests ◽  
Rights Of The Child ◽  
European Court ◽  
Elusive Concept

The best interests of the child principle is considered a pillar of children’s rights law and, according to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), is to be a primary consideration in all actions concerning children. Yet best interests is an elusive concept and principle that has no single authoritative definition or description. Internationally and domestically relevant in such diverse areas as family law, adoption, migration, and socioeconomic policymaking, the best interests principle requires flexibility and is best served by a case-by-case approach, as has been recognized by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and the European Court of Human Rights. This chapter analyzes relevant international case law and suggests the use of a number of safeguards to prevent such requisite flexibility from presenting a danger of paternalism, bias, or misuse.

The Child’s Right to Family

2020 ◽  
pp. 236-256
Author(s):  
Barbara Bennett Woodhouse
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Family Relationships ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Children's Rights ◽  
Family Reunification ◽  
Children’S Rights ◽  
Family Identity ◽  
Rights Of The Child ◽  
European Court ◽  
Birth Records

This chapter discusses the role played by human rights charters, such as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the European Charter of Human Rights, and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, in establishing that children are not mere property of their parents but persons with their own independent rights to protection of family relationships and family identity. The chapter identifies specific provisions in these charters relevant to children’s family rights. It then examines various decisions of the European Court of Human Rights that address claims of violations of children’s rights to family in contexts including adoption, child protection, family reunification, access to birth records, and immigration, and that define appropriate remedies. The chapter closes by highlighting the growing threat to children’s rights to know and be cared for by their families posed by the populist backlash in wealthier nations against migrants fleeing war, violence, and poverty.

Incorporating children’s rights: the divergence in law and policy

Legal Studies ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 261-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Williams
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Children's Rights ◽  
Children’S Rights ◽  
European Convention ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
Rights Of The Child ◽  
Law And Policy ◽  
Legislative Framework ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact

The paper examines conceptual barriers to incorporation of children’s rights – understood in the context of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms 1950, the Human Rights Act 1998 and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 – in the law of England and Wales. It identifies traditions in law and policy on children and young people, and competing political imperatives which militate against effective implementation of children’s rights to protection and provision, but suggests that participative rights pose fewer problems. It argues that the scope for further judicial development is limited in the absence of substantial changes in the legislative framework. It then examines rights-based reasoning in administrative practice and considers the impact here of ideological differences between the UK Government and the Welsh Assembly Government. It considers the scope for differential implementation within the evolving devolution settlement, and the potential impact of such difference on child law and practice in the ‘single jurisdiction’ of England and Wales. It concludes by arguing for greater attention to executive as well as legislative and judicial functions, and to extra-judicial mechanisms, for promoting rights-based decision making.

scholarly journals 1979: a Year of the Child, but Not of Children’s Human Rights

Diplomatica ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 202-220
Author(s):  
Linde Lindkvist
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Children's Rights ◽  
Children’S Rights ◽  
Industrialized Countries ◽  
Political Awareness ◽  
Historical Case ◽  
Global Issues ◽  
International Agencies ◽  
Rights Of The Child ◽  
The Status

This article explores the diplomatic contestations over children’s rights in connection to the International Year of the Child (iyc) of 1979. At the time, the Year was celebrated as an outstanding success, an event which helped to heighten social and political awareness of the status of children in both developing and industrialized countries, and which brought to light a plethora of new global issues, including street children, children with disabilities and children in armed conflict. Today, the iyc is frequently reduced to a plotting point in histories charting the rise of an international discourse of children’s rights, a discourse that is intimately linked to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989. This article shows how the concept of children’s rights was of peripheral importance to the overarching purposes of the iyc, which instead revolved around a notion of child welfare as integral to wider projects of social and economic development, either in the form of economic sovereignty or basic needs. The article then revisits the 1978–1979 UN debates on a human rights treaty for children, showing how this project initially garnered minimal support among states, international agencies and non-state actors. The article thus takes issue with teleological accounts that see the iyc primarily as a first step toward the subsequent breakthrough of children’s human rights. It also showcases how historical case studies of UN observances can be fruitful for scholars interested in the clashes and amalgamations of competing concepts and projects at an international level.

13. Human Rights, Children’s Rights, and Family Law

Family Law ◽  
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen Stalford ◽  
Seamus Byrne
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Corporal Punishment ◽  
Family Life ◽  
Family Law ◽  
Children's Rights ◽  
Children’S Rights ◽  
European Convention ◽  
Rights Of The Child

This chapter explores children's rights in the context of family law and family life. It aims to look at family law through the lens of the human rights of children and the associated theoretical, doctrinal, and empirical scholarship. It begins with a brief overview of the international children's rights framework underpinning this area, including the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the European Convention on Human Rights. It then points to some of the cultural, legal, and practical obstacles to the protection of children's rights in the context of family law. It also discusses the issue of corporal punishment.

The Role of Children’s Rights

2020 ◽  
pp. 207-224
Author(s):  
Barbara Bennett Woodhouse
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Children's Rights ◽  
Children’S Rights ◽  
Social Environments ◽  
Best Interest ◽  
The Public ◽  
Rights Of The Child ◽  
Positive Rights

Chapter ten compares the threats to sustainability of social environments identified in the prior chapter with the existential threat of climate change. The author calls for a similar transformation of macrosystemic that shapes out social and political worlds. She proposes adopting ecogenerism, which treats the welfare of future generations as a its paramount vale, as the agent of transformation. To guide in defining children’s essential needs and rights, and to measure progress in creating a wordl fit for children, the author proposes the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) as the most broadly accepted normative framework. The author introduces the rights protected by the CRC, first in child-friendly language and then using the more complex language and interpretive tools of human rights law. The author highlights various innovative CRC principles that can change play a role in transforming the ecology of childhood. They include: viewing the best interest of the child holistically as protecting the full range of children’s rights; bridging the public/private divide by clarifying children’s positive rights to social welfare supports; and integrating the science of child development into the scheme of human rights.

UN-BLURRING THE MYTHS AND REALITIES OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN’S RIGHTS IN SOUTH AFRICA

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-120
Author(s):  
T N Sithole ◽  
Kgothatso B Shai
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Children's Rights ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Children’S Rights ◽  
Vulnerable Groups ◽  
Great Awareness ◽  
Policy Theory ◽  
Rights Of The Child ◽  
The Status ◽  
Customary Practices

Awareness of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW 1979) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC 1989) is relatively high within academic and political circles in South Africa and elsewhere around the world. In South Africa, this can be ascribed mainly to the powerful women’s lobby movements represented in government and academic sectors. Women and children’s issues have been especially highlighted in South Africa over the last few years. In this process, the aforementioned two international human rights instruments have proved very useful. There is a gender desk in each national department. The Office on the Status of Women and the Office on Child Rights have been established within the Office of the President, indicating the importance attached to these institutions. These offices are responsible for co-ordinating governmental efforts towards the promotion and protection of women and children’s rights respectively, including the two relevant treaties. Furthermore, there is also a great awareness amongst non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in respect of CEDAW and CRC. This can be ascribed mainly to the fact that there is a very strong women’s NGO lobby and NGOs are actively committed to the promotion of children’s rights. Women are increasingly vocal and active within the politics of South Africa, but the weight of customary practices remains heavy. The foregoing is evident of the widening gap between policy theory and practice in the fraternity of vulnerable groups – children and women in particular.

Citizenship and Rights of Children

2020 ◽  
pp. 221-236
Author(s):  
David B. Thronson
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Forced Migration ◽  
Children's Rights ◽  
Children’S Rights ◽  
Central Factor ◽  
Family Unity

Citizenship plays a larger and more critical role in the life of children than it should. Children who lack citizenship are incredibly vulnerable to exploitation. In the migration context, a child’s citizenship can be largely determinative of where and with whom a child lives. Despite a modern children’s rights framework that recognizes the humanity and autonomy of children, citizenship and nationality still form an integral part of a child’s identity and play a critical role in a child’s development. It has a pervasive impact in securing other rights for children and can be a central factor in a child’s cultural and linguistic background, education, economic and environment exposures, and virtually all aspects of a child’s daily life. This chapter examines children’s right to citizenship and explores the ongoing crisis of statelessness that undermines these rights. It reviews the role that citizenship plays in both voluntary and forced migration of children, child-specific protections found in both universal and regional human rights frameworks, and the role of children’s citizenship in promoting family unity.

The Interrelated and Interdependent Nature of Children’s Rights

2020 ◽  
pp. 69-98
Author(s):  
Savitri Goonesekere
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Children's Rights ◽  
Children’S Rights ◽  
Effective Implementation ◽  
Rights Of The Child ◽  
Global Agenda

The chapter analyses children’s human rights as universal norms and standards incorporated in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) that are relevant in diverse national contexts. Discussing national experiences and the quasi-jurisprudence of treaty bodies, the chapter argues that understanding the interrelated nature of the different groups of rights in the CRC is essential for effective implementation of these rights. It is suggested that the concept of the indivisibility of human rights and the global agenda of sustainable development reinforce the need for this approach. The chapter also discusses the interdependence, compatibility, and conflict between children’s rights and the human rights of other groups, such as parents, women, and a community with which a child connects as he or she grows to adulthood. The chapter argues that incorporating children’s rights in national constitutions, rather than ad hoc legislation, encourages this holistic approach to implementing children’s rights.

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