Children’s Rights in Practice

Considering the rights of the child is now central to all fields involving children and to good multi-agency working. This book offers an explanation of the theoretical issues and the key policy developments that are crucial to all professions, and helps the reader to understand children’s rights in relation to their role in working with children and young people. Looking at education, health, social care and welfare, it bridges the gap between policy and practice for children from Birth to 19 years.

Chapters cover:

– the child’s right to play

– youth justice and children’s rights

– the voice of the child

– ethical dilemmas in different contexts

– involvement, participation and decision making

– safeguarding and child protection

– social justice and exclusion

This book helps the reader understand what constitutes good practice, whilst considering the advantages and tensions involved in working across disciplines to implement children’s rights against a complex legislative and social policy backdrop.

Essential reading for undergraduate and graduate students on Early Years, Early Childhood Studies, Childhood and Youth, Education, Law, Social Work, Play and Psychology courses, it is relevant to professionals working across education, health and social work.

World Report on Violence Against Children

Children’s experience of violence, as victims or as witnesses, can have a devastating effect on their physical, emotional and social well being. Violence against children has a further reaching impact on families, communities and global development when its effects prevent children from reaching their full potential. This report documents the impact of violence against children throughout the world, and ways in which governments and individuals can act to prevent and control it.

The Politics of Adoption

This book explains, compares and evaluates the social and legal functions of adoption within a range of selected jurisdictions and on an international basis. It updates and extends the second edition published by Springer in 2009. From a standpoint of the development of adoption in England & Wales, and the changes currently taking place there, it considers the process as it has evolved in other countries. It identifies themes of commonality and difference in the experience of adoption in a common law context as compared and contrasted with that of other countries. It looks at adoption in France, Sweden and other civil law countries, as well as Japan and elsewhere in Asia, including a focus on Islamic adoption. It examines the experience of indigenous people in New Zealand and Australia, contrasting the highly regulated legal process of modern western society with the traditional practice of indigenous communities such as the Maori. A new chapter studies adoption in China. The book uses the international Conventions and associated ECtHR case law to benchmark developments in national law, policy and practice and to facilitate a cross-cultural comparative analysis.

Handboek Internationaal Jeugdrecht

De toepassing van het VN-Kinderrechtenverdrag blijkt in de praktijk niet eenvoudig. Daarom is gedegen kennis nodig over de rechten van kinderen. Het Handboek Internationaal Jeugdrecht geeft een uitvoerige uiteenzetting van de inhoud en de betekenis van de artikelen uit het VN-Kinderrechtenverdrag. Daarnaast wordt de internationale regelgeving uitgediept die de (rechts)positie van kinderen raakt.

In het handboek komen naast internationale regelgeving ook de Nederlandse wetgeving, beleid en jurisprudentie uitgebreid aan bod. In de afzonderlijke hoofdstukken worden het internationaal familierecht, kinderrechten en migratie, jeugdstrafrecht en de uitbuiting van kinderen besproken. Er is aandacht voor zeer uiteenlopende thema’s:

van kinderarbeid tot gezinshereniging
van leerplicht tot herstelrecht
van adoptie tot meisjesbesnijdenis
van spelen tot ondertoezichtstelling
van kindermishandeling tot drugsmisbruik
van discriminatie tot seksueel misbruik
van alimentatie tot alleenstaande minderjarige vreemdeling
van vaccinaties tot kindsoldaten

Het handboek biedt daarmee alle relevante internationale en nationale informatie die voor de toepassing van kinderrechten van belang zijn.

Law and Childhood Studies

The Current Legal Issues series is based upon an annual colloquium held at University College London. Each year leading scholars from around the world gather to discuss the relationship between law and another discipline of thought. Each colloquium examines how the external discipline is conceived in legal thought and argument, how the law is pictured in that discipline, and analyses points of controversy in the use, and abuse, of extra-legal arguments within legal theory and practice. This book, the fourteenth volume in the Current Legal Issues series, offers an insight into the state of law and childhood studies scholarship today. Focusing on the inter-connections between the two disciplines, it addresses the key issues informing current debates. Topics include cyber bullying, children’s human rights, childhood in conflict-stricken areas, foster care, and parental discipline.

A Commentary on the UNCRC, Article 24

This volume constitutes a commentary on Article 24 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. It is part of the series, A Commentary on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which provides an article by article analysis of all substantive, organizational and procedural provisions of the CRC and its two Optional Protocols. For every article, a comparison with related human rights provisions is made, followed by an in-depth exploration of the nature and scope of State obligations deriving from that article. The series constitutes an essential tool for actors in the field of children’s rights, including academics, students, judges, grassroots workers, governmental, non- governmental and international officers.

Children’s Rights in Health Care

While coordinating the University of Groningen’s Honours College Winterschool/Atelier entitled Children’s Rights in Health Care, the need to publish the contributions to this program was generally expressed and confirmed by its participants. The Winterschool/Atelier, successfully organized in recent years, has dealt with many issues concerning the legal position of minor persons – born and unborn – in the context of health care, especially pediatric care. These issues involve matters concerning pediatric treatment, preventive care and predictive medicine, medical research involving children, incompetence and child autonomy, a child’s psychological development, parental responsibility and representation, protective judicial measures, child migration issues, children’s health rights enforcement as well as children’s health interest monitoring and promotion. During the program, leading experts in the fields of law, ethics, medicine, biology, psychology and institutions such as the Dutch Child & Hospital Foundation, the Child Protection Board, Save the Children, and UNICEF shared their views on normative standards, practical experiences, significant developments, challenging ideas, silent dreams and inevitable realities. As a result, the Children’s Rights in Health Care program provided opportunities for a profound dialogue between Honours College students and lecturing scholars on a wide range of topics involving children’s health care interests. This volume contains several analyses of health rights issues related to children. The various chapters provide an overview of this captivating area and may be of special interest to lawyers, health care professionals, ethicists, psychologists, judicial institutions, policy makers, interest groups, students and all others who are concerned with the children’s rights perspective on health care.

A Review of Children’s Access to Employment-Based Contributory Social Insurance Benefits

The review assesses the obstacles to accessing the death benefits due to orphans from statutory insur-ance schemes and pension funds in South Africa. The operation of eight major registered pension funds and three major statutory insurance funds are described. A socio-economic and legal analysis of the appointment of guardians suggests risks to the rights of children in accessing benefits. Foster children are not consistently covered. Anomalies arise from limitations in coverage of workers out of employment, and unlawful workers. Significant obstacles to accessing benefits include unjustified and cumbersome claims procedures, a failure to properly investigate claims in certain funds, inappropriate payment methods, poor governance, inappropriate trust arrangements and a lack of adequate moni-toring and reporting on unclaimed monies. The review concludes with recommendations for reform.

Caring for children affected by HIV and AIDS

Around the world, millions of children have lost one or both parents to AIDS, and millions more live with sick and dying family members. The profound trauma of losing one or both parents has devastating long-term implications, not only for a child’s well-being and development, but for the stability of some communities.AIDS is killing not only parents, but also brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, neighbours, teachers and other members of the community. It is emptying schools, wiping out families and extinguishing hope. If it takes a village to raise a child, what happens to that child when the village is besieged by the dying and the dead?

A Commentary on the UNCRC, Article 20

This volume constitutes a commentary on Article 20 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, dealing with children deprived of their family environment. It is part of the series, A Commentary on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which provides an article by article analysis of all substantive, organizational and procedural provisions of the CRC and its two Optional Protocols. For every article, a comparison with related human rights provisions is made, followed by an in-depth exploration of the nature and scope of State obligations deriving from that article. The series constitutes an essential tool for actors in the field of children’s rights, including academics, students, judges, grassroots workers, governmental, non- governmental and international officers.