Meet our Members

Academic Staff

  • Professor Helen Stalford (Director): EU children’s rights – constitutional issues; child and family migration; cross-border family breakdown; child participation in decision-making; child mainstreaming; children’s rights indicators.
  • Dr Aoife Daly (Deputy Director): children's right to participation; social justice; the right to protest; family law; human rights and the arts.
  • Dr Amel Alghrani: assisted reproduction and children's rights.
  • Seamus Byrne: children's socio-economic rights.
  • Dr Eleanor Drywood: children’s rights under EU immigration and asylum law; children’s rights perspectives on football in Europe.
  • Professor Amandine Garde: consumer protection, advertising, public health, non-communicable diseases (with a focus on obesity prevention, and alcohol and tobacco control).
  • Professor Barry Goldson: juvenile justice.
  • Dr Jamie-Lee Mooney: child sexual abuse and grooming.
  • Mr Joseph Savirimuthu: online technologies and children’s rights.
  • Dr Sarah Woodhouse: children’s rights under immigration/asylum law.
  • Ms Leona Vaughn: Doing Risk: Practitioner Interpretations of Risk of Childhood Radicalisation and the Implementation of the HM Government PREVENT Duty. 

 Honorary Research Fellows

  • Professor Michael Freeman
  • Mr Liam Cairns: Director of Investing in Children; child participation.
  • Mr Tony Dobson: child participation in decision-making; child poverty and social exclusion.
  • Mr Mike Jones: child participation in decision-making; child poverty and social exclusion.
  • Ms Frances Meyler: children’s rights under immigration/asylum law.
  • Mr Sandy Ruxton: children and the global economic crisis; children’s participation in decision-making; children and EU immigration law.
  • : policy advisor at Eurochild; child participation in decision-making; child mainstreaming at EU level; children and the EU enlargement process.

 PhD students

  • Ms Rachel Heah: Children's Right to Sexuality Education.
  • Ms Hannah Hirst: Gender dysphoria, medical treatment and children’s rights.
  • Ms Katrina Miles: Children’s sexual activity, protection and autonomy.
  • Ms Amber Pugh: Mental capacity, disability rights, sexual and reproductive rights. 
  • Ms Jessica Randall: The recognition of alternative gender-identities.
  • Ms Kirsten Ward: Children’s right to health and the sugar tax.
  • Ms Nazia Yaqub: A children’s rights examination of cross-border parental abduction.

  • ERCU's Formal Associations

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    Eurochild

    Eurochild is a network of organisations and individuals working in 35 European countries to improve the quality of life of children and young people. Eurochild’s activities include: sharing information on policy and practice; monitoring and influencing policy development at national and European level; creating interest groups and partnerships between member organizations; representing the interests of its members to international institutions; strengthening the capacity of its members through training, individual advice and support.

    Investing in Children

    Investing in Children (IiC) is an organisation concerned with the human rights of children. It was created in the 1990s in County Durham by managers in the local authority and the National Health Service. Over the last 17 years, IiC has developed a range of different ways in which children and young people are supported to say what they want to say, and help to improve services used by them, by discussing their ideas with the adults who run the services. IiC also provides staff training programmes and contributes to national and international debates about the human rights and citizenship of children and young people.

  • Collaborative Academic Institutions and Individuals

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    The Centre for Childhood and Youth Research, University of Central Lancashire

    The main areas of their research are Children and young people’s participation in decision-making; Children and young people’s inclusion (in relation to ethnicity, poverty, disability and ill-health, care, etc); Migration and child refugees; Children’s rights and citizenship. They work together with young people to plan projects and research to enable them to participate as fully as they can.

    The Child Law Clinic, University College Cork

    This is a research initiative which provides Pro-Bono services from students to lawyers litigating children's issues. They aim to provide better legal aid for children in hopes of progressing reform in child law in Ireland and internationally.

    The Centre for Children’s Rights, Queen’s University Belfast

    The Centre aims to promote high quality, interdisciplinary research that provides a better understanding of the issues that affect children and young people in order to improve their life chances and experiences.

    Maria Roth, Babeş-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca, Romania

    Maria Roth's research interests include Social work methods; Child protection; Foster care and adoption; Developmental psychology; Domestic violence; and Program and service evaluation.

  • Collaborative NGOs

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    YES forum

    The Youth and European Social Work Forum is a growing network of organisations across several EU and non EU countries committed to fostering social inclusion and active participation of children and young people who experience disadvantage and exclusion.

    Separated Children in Europe Programme

    A Branch of Save the Children whose aim is to ensure that the rights of all separated children entering or travelling across Europe will be realised and allow them to participate in decisions that affect their lives.

    ChildONEurope

    The partners of ChildONEurope consist of the representatives of National Observatories and National Ministries in charge of policies for children. ChildONEurope aims to create a forum for discussion and exchange of knowledge and best practices on children's policies, mainly through research and study activities.

    Child Rights Alliance of England (CRAE)

    CRAE protects the human rights of children by lobbying government and others who hold power.

    Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights

    A Human rights institute which looks at many areas including; Women‘s Rights, Children‘s Rights and Trafficking.