European Children's Rights Unit

The European Children’s Rights Unit (ECRU) is a research intensive cluster located within the University of Liverpool’s School of Law and Social Justice. With expertise across a broad range of children’s rights issues at domestic, regional, European and international level, the Unit works alongside numerous external partners ranging from academic, intergovernmental, non-governmental and other research-driven organisations, to purse diverse and inter-disclipinary research into children’s rights.

The Unit has a specific expertise in progressive participatory approaches to research involving children and in building capacities among practitioners and policy makers – through our training and consultancy work - to enable them to apply a children's rights based approach to their work. Examples of the Unit’s research areas inlude;

• Children’s rights, constitutionalism and multi-layered governance
• EU children’s rights, particularly in the context of Brexit
• Children's access to and experiences of the justice process
• Children, migration, immigration and asylum
• Cross border family break-down and parental child abduction
• Children’s participation in democratic processes
• Children’s socio-economic rights, particularly education, health and social welfare. 
• Children's rights and the sports industry
• Assisted reproduction and children’s rights
• Children, public health and non-communicable diseases
• Children, vulnerability and sexual abuse
• Children, privacy and digital rights/literacy

Bringing Europe Closer to Children

ECRU is always keen to nurture collaboration with external partners from a range of disciplines working in the field of children’s rights and invites expressions of interest from those seeking to engage in doctoral research into children’s rights issues. Please contact ECRU’s Directors, Professor Helen Stalford, and Dr Aoife Daly for further information.