Watch a short introduction
We do this in four ways. Firstly, we educate children about their rights. It's really important that children know what their rights are in any given context before they can really enforce them. We do this by translating what might be quite complicated legal ideas, provisions, or processes, into accessible child-focussed materials.
An example of this is our research into children's rights in a post-Brexit environment, particularly children's rights under the EU settlement scheme. We've worked with children and young people to translate all of the complexities of that new immigration status into a set of child-focussed resources and frequently asked questions. We've also carried out research into children's rights in the context of international child abduction, working with a number of international partners, and children and young people, to create a child-focussed website explaining what the law on child abduction means.
The second way that we enable children to enforce their rights is by developing and delivering training for practitioners who work on the frontline. So, for example, we've developed and delivered training to hundreds of vaccination nurses so that children and young people can be protected against serious illness such as HPV. We've also developed training around COVID vaccination because our research found that many children were going unprotected from these illnesses, due to their parents failing or refusing to consent. We have taught nurses about the law on children's right to consent on their own behalf, which can be implemented if they have sufficient maturity and understanding.
A second area in which we've trained frontline practitioners is in relation to the legal process. We've developed comprehensive online training resources for lawyers who work with or on behalf of children in a range of justice contexts. This training has been developed in consultation with children and young people, so that we're making sure that our training is reflective of the issues that those children have in these processes.
The third way in which we enable children to enforce their rights is through strategic litigation, a relatively new area for the European Children's Rights Unit. Strategic litigation is where cases go before the courts that have a really significant precedential potential for a whole range of other children affected by the same issue. So we gather evidence or indeed we intervene as third party interveners in cases that have real significance for a whole community of children. We've done this in relation to the rights of foster carers, and their children, and we're currently doing this in the context of children's access to benefits in a post-Brexit environment.
A final area in which we enable children to enforce their rights, is by simply conducting research the evaluates the impact of the law on children's lives to really monitor the extent to which the law is being implemented effectively in practice, and to identify gaps in the law, or gaps in implementation. We have developed, through comprehensive research, recommendations for change. We worked with civil society organisations, to harness their expertise and profile on a national and international level to achieve change in children's lives. At the moment we're working with different charities and lawyers who have experience working with children affected by deportation, so we can harness all of their expertise to ensure that our research has the maximum impact.
For the future of the European Children's Rights Unit, we want to really build capacity in all of these areas. We want to recruit new PhD students, and new experienced researchers, to come and join us in developing this important children's rights work.
"This case is about you and your future": Towards Judgements for Children
Professor Helen Stalford and Professor Kathryn Hollingsworth (Newcastle University), in conversation with Dr Simon Flacks (member of the SLSA Board of Trustees), discuss their project focussed on 'child-friendly' judgements, which was awarded the SLSA Article Prize 2021.
Watch the recording
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