Children's Rights Law in the Global Human Rights Landscape: Isolation, inspiration, integration?(Routledge Research in Human Rights Law)

About the Book

Children’s rights law is often studied and perceived in isolation from the broader field of human rights law. This volume explores the inter-relationship between children’s rights law and more general human rights law in order to see whether elements from each could successfully inform the other. Children’s rights law has a number of distinctive characteristics, such as the emphasis on the ‘best interests of the child’, the use of general principles, and the inclusion of ‘third parties’ (e.g. parents and other care-takers) in treaty provisions. The first part of this book questions whether these features could be a source of inspiration for general human rights law. In part two, the reverse question is asked: could children’s rights law draw inspiration from developments in other branches of human rights law that focus on other specific categories of rights holders, such as women, persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples, or older persons? Finally, the interaction between children’s rights law and human rights law – and the potential for their isolation, inspiration or integration – may be coloured or determined by the thematic issue under consideration. Therefore the third part of the book studies the interplay between children’s rights law and human rights law in the context of specific topics: intra-family relations, LGBTQI marginalization, migration, media, the environment and transnational human rights obligations.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Children’s rights law and human rights law: analysing present and possible future interactions Eva Brems, Ellen Desmet and Wouter Vandenhole Part I The broader relevance of features of children’s rights law 1. Distinctive characteristics of children’s human rights law Wouter Vandenhole 2. The broader relevance of features of children’s rights law. The ‘best interests of the child’ principle Helen Stalford 3. The four general principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child: the potential value of the approach in other areas of human rights law Laura Lundy and Bronagh Byrne 4. The inclusion of ‘third parties’: The status of parenthood in the Convention on the Rights of the Child Roberta Ruggiero, Diana Volonakis and Karl Hanson Part II Inspiration for children’s rights from categorical human rights 5. Lessons for children’s rights from women’s rights? Emancipation rights as a distinct category of human rights Eva Brems 6. Lessons for children’s rights from disability rights? Ralph Sandland 7. Inspiration for children’s rights from indigenous peoples’ rights Ellen Desmet 8. What young and old can learn from each other: cross-fertilisation between existing human rights law for children and developing human rights law for older persons Ann-Katrin Habbig, Alexander Hoefmans and Paul De Hert Part III The interplay between children’s rights law and human rights law in thematic areas 9. Towards an integrated approach to intra-family relations under the CRC and CEDAW; some reflections Titia Loenen 10. Children’s rights and LGBTI persons’ rights: few thoughts on their ‘integration’ Ivana Isailovic 11. Undocumented migration: integrating the children’s rights concept of nuanced vulnerability in human rights law Julie Ryngaert and Wouter Vandenhole 12. Children’s rights and media: imperfect but inspirational Eva Lievens 13. Out of isolation: A claim for explicit attention for children in the movement toward recognition of an environmental right Danielle Van Kalmthout 14. Children’s rights in business and human rights: from the sidelines to the centre field? Gamze Erdem Türkelli

About the Author :
Eva Brems is professor at the Human Rights Centre of Ghent University, Belgium. Ellen Desmet is assistant professor of migration law at the Law Faculty of Ghent University, Belgium. Wouter Vandenhole teaches human rights and holds the UNICEF Chair in Children’s Rights – a joint venture of the University of Antwerp and UNICEF Belgium – at the Faculty of Law of the University of Antwerp, Belgium.