The Oxford Handbook of Children's Rights Law

Children's rights law is a relatively young but rapidly developing discipline. The U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, the field's core legal instrument, is the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history. Yet, like children themselves, children's rights are often relegated to the margins in mainstream legal, political, and other discourses, despite their application to approximately one-third of the world's population and every human being's first stages of life.

Now thirty years old, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) signaled a definitive shift in the way that children are viewed and understood--from passive objects subsumed within the family to fully human beings with a distinct set of rights. Although the CRC and other children's rights laws have spurred positive changes in law, policies, and attitudes toward children in numerous countries, implementation remains a work in progress. We have reached a stage in the evolution of children's rights in which we need more critical evaluation and assessment of the CRC and the large body of children's rights law and policy that this treaty has inspired.

We have moved from conceptualizing and adopting legislation to focusing on implementation and making the content of children's rights mean in the lives of all children. This book provides a critical evaluation and assessment of children's rights law, including the CRC. With contributions from leading scholars and practitioners from around the world, it aims to elucidate the content of children's rights law, explore the complexities of implementation, and identify critical challenges and opportunities for children's rights law.

Preface - Martha Minow

Introduction - Jonathan Todres and Shani M. King

I. Historical and Theoretical Framework

Chapter 1. Images Toward the Emancipation of Children in Modern Western Culture - Gertrud Lenzer
Chapter 2. The Evolution of the Children's Rights Movement - Jo Becker
Chapter 3. Taking Children's Human Rights Seriously - Michael Freeman
Chapter 4. The Interrelated and Interdependent Nature of Children's Rights - Savitri Goonesekere

II. Perspectives and Methods

Chapter 5. A Child-centered Approach to Children's Rights Law: Living Rights and Translations - Karl Hanson and Olga Nieuwenhuys
Chapter 6. A Socio-Ecological Model of Children's Rights - Tali Gal
Chapter 7. Critical Race Theory and Children's Rights - Natsu Taylor Saito and Akilah J. Kinnison
Chapter 8. Feminist Legal Theory and Children's Rights - Meredith Johnson Harbach
Chapter 9. Intersectionality and Children's Rights - Jessica Dixon Weaver

III. Substantive Legal Areas

Chapter 10. The Best Interests of the Child - Wouter Vandenhole and Gamze Erdem Türkelli
Chapter 11. Citizenship and Rights of Children - David B. Thronson
Chapter 12. The Child's Right to Family - Barbara Bennett Woodhouse
Chapter 13. Child Participation - Jaap Doek
Chapter 14. Juvenile Justice - Ton Liefaard
Chapter 15. Placing Children's Freedom from Violence at the Heart of the Policy Agenda - Marta Santos Pais
Chapter 16. Continuing Dilemmas of International Adoption - Twila L. Perry
Chapter 17. Economic and Labor Rights of Children - Manfred Liebel
Chapter 18. The Health Rights of Children - Ursula Kilkelly
Chapter 19. Revisiting the three 'R's in order to realize children's education rights: Relationships, Resources and Redress - Laura Lundy and Amy Brown
Chapter 20. Poverty and Children's Rights - Aoife Nolan
Chapter 21. Situating the Rights vs. Culture Binary within the Context of Colonial History in Sub-Saharan Africa- Afua Twum-Danso Imoh
Chapter 22. Climate Change & Children's Rights - Christine Bakker

V. Selected Individual and Institutional Actors

Chapter 23. Taking Part, Joining In, and Being Heard? Ethnographic Explorations of Children's Participation - Perpetua Kirby and Rebecca Webb
Chapter 24. National Human Rights Institutions for Children - Garrison Lansdown
Chapter 25. Examining the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child through the Lens of Caste- and Descent-based Discrimination - Philip E. Veerman

VI. Selected Populations

Chapter 26. Embracing Our LGBTQ Youth: A Child Rights Paradigm - Berta Esperanza Hernández-Truyol
Chapter 27. Indigenous Children - Addie C. Rolnick
Chapter 28. Children with Disabilities: Achievements, Prospects, and Challenges Ahead - Maya Sabatello and Mary Frances Layden
Chapter 29. Independent Children - Julia Sloth Nielsen and Katrien Klep
Chapter 30. Trafficked Children - Mike Dottridge
Chapter 31. Children in Armed Conflict - Mark Drumbl
Chapter 32. Working Towards Recognition of the Rights of Migrant and Refugee Children - Sarah Paoletti

VII. Conclusion

Chapter 33. Human Rights Education: Educating about Children's Rights - R. Brian Howe and Katherine Covell Chapter 34. Children's Rights in the Twenty-First Century: Challenges and Opportunities - Jonathan Todres and Shani M. King