Academic Staff
- Dr Eleanor Drywood (Director) – children’s rights under EU immigration and asylum law; developing children’s rights-based approaches to regulating the football industry and other sports.
- Dr Nicolás Brando (Deputy Director) - Philosophy of childhood and children's rights; social and political theory; civil and political rights; the capabilities approach.
- Dr Amel Alghrani (Reader) – The rights and welfare of children born as a result of new reproductive technologies. Education law, exclusions and the rights of children with special educational needs and disabilities.
- Professor Nicola Barker (Professor of Law) - feminist approach to the broad areas of constitutional and family law.
- James Betts (Solictor/Lecturer) - education law, disability, and children's rights.
- Professor Anna Carline (Professor of Law) - criminal law and criminal justice (in particular domestic violence and sexual offences), family law and feminist/gender theory.
- Professor Marie Fox (Professor of Law) -
- Professor Barry Goldson (Emeritus Professor) – youth justice law and policy at domestic, European and international level; human rights and youth justice reform; poverty and access to welfare rights for young people.
- Dr Danielle Griffiths (Lecturer) - healthcare law, criminal law and criminal justice, family law, and feminist/gender theory
- Dr Ed Horowicz (Lecturer) - ethical and legal issues that arise in the provision or non-provision of medical interventions for intersex and gender diverse children and adolescents.
- Dr Zaina Mahmood (Lecturer) - surrogacy, pregnancy, reproductive technology.
- Dr Craig Purshouse (Senior Lecturer) - medical law.
- Dr William Shankley (Lecturer) - intersections between asylum and modern slavery frameworks on migrant communities, participatory/trauma-informed methods with migrants, asylum and statelessness.
- Professor Helen Stalford (Head of the Liverpool Law School) – The impact of Brexit on children’s rights; children’s access to and experiences of justice processes; asylum and migration, with a particular focus on unaccompanied children; participatory methods.
- Deborah Tyfield (Law Clinic Practitioner) – special education needs and social care for children. Manages a specialist law clinic for the families of child patients at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital.
- Paul Walmsley (Liverpool-based youth worker and founder of the Lewis Dunne Foundation) – Particular experience of working with children at risk of criminal exploitation/county lines.
- Dr Sarah Woodhouse (Law Clinic Practitioner) – children’s rights under immigration/asylum law.
- Dr Sacha Waxman (Lecturer) - medical ethics.
External Members
- Dr Lucy Frith (University of Manchester) - pregnancy and childbirth, research ethics, the organisation and funding of health care provision (priority setting), reproductive technologies.
- Dr Leah Gilman (Research Fellow, University of Manchester) - social, cultural and legal perspectives on reproduction, childhood, personal relationships and medicine.
- Dr Hannah Hirst (Lecturer, University of Sheffield) - child law and children's rights, gender and the law, healthcare law, family law.
- Dr Nazia Yaqub (Senior Lecturer, University of Leeds) - child rights, gender justice, Islamic law and international human rights law.
Honorary Research Fellows
Our Honorary fellows bring a wealth of frontline experience and intellectual rigour to ECRU’s work, enabling us to maximise the relevance and impact of our research, and helping us to link up directly with children and young people on the ground.
- Liam Cairns (Co-Director of UK children’s rights organisation, Investing in Children) – Particular expertise in children’s participation in shaping services and in co-producing research.
- Dr Aoife Daly (Lecturer - University of Cork) - human rights based approaches and children's rights in areas which include environmental rights, climate activism, and access to justice.
- Tony Dobson (former social worker and researcher with The Children’s Society) – Particular expertise in participatory approaches to decision-making; child poverty and social exclusion.
- Michael Jones (former social worker, researcher and Manager with The Children’s Society) – Particular expertise in participatory approaches to decision-making; child poverty and social exclusion.
- Frances Meyler - (Fellow of the School of Law and Social Justice) - Particular interest in immigration law, children's rights, and statelessness.
PhD research in ECRU
PhD researchers form an integral role in ECRU. They participate in the annual international PhD children’s rights symposium, which was launched by ECRU in 2012 and is now run in collaboration with the Children’s Rights European Academic Network (CREAN). They also help organise the monthly children’s rights reading group, manage the University’s Young Persons Advisory Group, and collaborate with established academics on consultancy and research. If you are interested in pursuing PhD research with ECRU, please contact one of the directors who will be happy to discuss your proposed project with you.
PhD students
- Matilda Clough - Tilly's thesis title is: 'An Investigation into the Charitable Status of Independent Schools'.
- Naomi Jackson -
- Deborah Lawson - Thesis examining the rights and experiences of children from indigenous communities in Canada and Australia, through the lens of Article 19 UNCRC (protection against violence).
- Monique Mehmi - Monique's thesis is on the intersection between asylum law, anti-trafficking, and criminal justice, as they relate to young migrants.
- Jenny Preston – Jenny is responsible for the management and delivery of a children, young person and family involvement strategy linked to EATC4Children activities.
- Jessica Randall – Jessica's thesis title is 'Until Death: The Impact of the Gender Recognition Act on Trans Relationships.'
- Alison Wolfreys – Alison's thesis is on children's participation in cross-border child abduction proceedings.
ECRU'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 organisations; representing the interests of its members to international institutions; strengthening the capacity of its members through training, individual advice and support.
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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.
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Impact: Law for Social Justice
Impact: Law for Social Justice brings together a hand-picked team of litigators, journalists, project planners and researchers, with direct experience of how the law can be used alongside other campaign tools to drive lasting social change. Impact offers tailored, timely, tried-and-tested advice and support for individuals and groups to plan and execute a litigation campaign strategy. Their mission is to advise and work with organisations, communities and individuals on whether the law, in conjunction with other campaign tools, could bring lasting change in their sectors. They have helped ECRU develop the strategic litigation strand of their work.
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The Children’s Rights European Academic Network (CREAN)
ECRU is an active member of CREAN, an academic network of more than 30 higher education institutions in Europe. Its aim is to enhance interdisciplinary exchange and collaboration amongst academic institutions working in the field of children’s rights.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Child Rights Alliance of England (CRAE)
CRAE protects the human rights of children by lobbying government and others who hold power.
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Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights
A Human rights institute which looks at many areas including; Women‘s Rights, Children‘s Rights and Trafficking.
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