This volume examines critically some of the most pertinent and controversial issues relating to children and health care. Insights are offered into some of today's leading controversies about children and their rights. The focus is on such issues as anorexia, circumcision, autism and gender reassignment. A number of the essays in this collection were previously published in the International Journal of Children's Rights.

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) signalled a definitive shift in the way that children are viewed and understood--from passive objects subsumed within the family to full human beings with a distinct set of rights. Although the CRC and other children's rights law have spurred positive changes in law, policies, and attitudes toward children in numerous countries, implementation remains a work in progress. We have reached a state 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 meaningful 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.

This text considers the developing law in England and Wales as it applies to the burgeoning and confusing subject of the rights of children. It examines the extent to which the emerging legal principles can be harnessed to fulfil those rights.

Since the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) children’s rights have assumed a central position in a wide variety of disciplines and policies. This handbook offers an engaging overview of the contemporary research landscape for those people in the theory and practice of children’s rights. The volume offers a multidisciplinary approach to children’s rights, as well as key thematic issues in children’s rights at the intersection of global and local concerns. The main approaches and topics within the volume are: • Law, social work, and the sociology of childhood and anthropology • Geography, childhood studies, gender studies and citizenship studies • Participation, education and health • Juvenile justice and alternative care • Violence against children and female genital mutilation • Child labour, working children and child poverty • Migration, indigenous children and resource exploitation The specially commissioned chapters have been written by renowned scholars and researchers and come together to provide a critical and invaluable guide to the challenges and dilemmas currently facing children’s rights.

While coordinating the University of Groningen’s Honours College Winterschool/Atelier entitled Children's Rights in Health Care, the need to publish the contributions to this program was generally expressed and confirmed by its participants. The Winterschool/Atelier, successfully organized in recent years, has dealt with many issues concerning the legal position of minor persons – born and unborn – in the context of health care, especially pediatric care. These issues involve matters concerning pediatric treatment, preventive care and predictive medicine, medical research involving children, incompetence and child autonomy, a child’s psychological development, parental responsibility and representation, protective judicial measures, child migration issues, children’s health rights enforcement as well as children’s health interest monitoring and promotion. During the program, leading experts in the fields of law, ethics, medicine, biology, psychology and institutions such as the Dutch Child & Hospital Foundation, the Child Protection Board, Save the Children, and UNICEF shared their views on normative standards, practical experiences, significant developments, challenging ideas, silent dreams and inevitable realities. As a result, the Children's Rights in Health Care program provided opportunities for a profound dialogue between Honours College students and lecturing scholars on a wide range of topics involving children’s health care interests. This volume contains several analyses of health rights issues related to children. The various chapters provide an overview of this captivating area and may be of special interest to lawyers, health care professionals, ethicists, psychologists, judicial institutions, policy makers, interest groups, students and all others who are concerned with the children’s rights perspective on health care.

While the notion of young people as individuals worthy or capable of having rights is of relatively recent origin, over the past several decades there has been a substantial increase in both social and political commitment to children’s rights as well as a tendency to grant young people some of the rights that were typically accorded only to adults. In addition, there has been a noticeable shift in orientation from a focus on children’s protection and provision to an emphasis on children’s participation and self-determination. With contributions from a wide range of international scholars, the Handbook of Children’s Rights brings together research, theory, and practice from diverse perspectives on children’s rights. This volume constitutes a comprehensive treatment of critical perspectives concerning children’s rights in their various forms. Its contributions address some of the major scholarly tensions and policy debates comprising the current discourse on children’s rights, including the best interests of the child, evolving capacities of the child, states’ rights versus children’s rights, rights of children versus parental or family rights, children as citizens, children’s rights versus children’s responsibilities, and balancing protection and participation. In addition to its multidisciplinary focus, the handbook includes perspectives from social science domains in which children’s rights scholarship has evolved largely independently due to distinct and seemingly competing assumptions and disciplinary approaches (e.g., childhood studies, developmental psychology, sociology of childhood, anthropology, and political science). The handbook also brings together diverse methodological approaches to the study of children’s rights, including both quantitative and qualitative perspectives, and policy analysis. This comprehensive, cosmopolitan, and timely volume serves as an important reference for both scholarly and policy-driven interest in the voices and perspectives of children and youth.

"Dr. Kilkelly's newest book, Children's Rights in Ireland: Law, Policy, and Practice, is a most useful and significant legal treatise of interest not only in Ireland but to readers in all English speaking nations. This book provides a thorough review of the historical evolution of the rights of children, relevant theories, case law, legislation, and a review of the current and growing influence of international law in the realm of children's legal rights. Highly recommend for all person interested in the rights of children, and essential reading for legal scholars and practitioners working in this area of law". John Dayton, J.D., Ed. D., Professor and Co-Director, Education Law Consortium, University of Georgia. A unique legal analysis of child and family law from a children's rights perspective. This completely unique new title outlines current law, policy and practice as it relates to children in all areas of their lives. Written in a clear analytical style, it maps the legal landscape and highlights the key provisions and principles you need to navigate when handling cases involving children and families. No other book examines law and policy affecting children in such a comprehensive and detailed manner. It tackles a broad range of issues concerning children beyond traditional family law, including constitutional issues, and will keep your firm in step with current thinking and the latest legal practice nationally and internationally. Written by Ireland's leading children's rights expert, it brings you and your firm right up to date.

This compact book celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Geneva Declaration of the Rights of the Child, a critical document that has shaped the relationship of adults with children worldwide. The document declares that all children must be fed, healed, protected, and given a safe place in which to develop fully. The brief: provides background information about the Geneva declaration and the related Convention on the Rights of the Child; discusses a child's rights to human dignity; and identifies local and global threats to children’s rights as well as potential safeguards against these threats. Among the topics covered: A Brief History of Children’s Rights Rethinking Healthcare for Children – Pivot to Human Dignity Children’s Right to Health in the US Child Welfare System: A Case Study Global Stakeholders in the Evolution of the Rights of the Child The Evolution of Global Child Rights: Protecting the Vulnerable is essential reading for anyone who works with or cares about children to understand the historic and current context of the rights and role of children within our society including pediatric healthcare professionals, policy makers, child welfare professionals, and other global stakeholders on child health.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child was incorporated into international law in 1989. Since its adoption, it has been ratified by nearly all member nations. An outline of the basic rights of all persons under the age of 18, the Convention has various implications and its importance cannot be contested. This collection focuses on children's rights as defined by the U.N. Convention, and their relevance in both national and international contexts. The contributors discuss the Convention from different disciplinary perspectives, but are united in the belief that it is a tool to be utilized and contextualized by individuals, institutions, and communities. If there is a single conviction to be found throughout Children's Rights it is that the rights of the child are far too important to be left to states alone to provide and protect. To paint a detailed picture of the subject as a whole, the volume looks at situations in which the basic rights of children are often denied such as violent social conflict, parental abandonment, and social inequality. Consisting of thirteen essays by prominent scholars, it is an in-depth and interdisciplinary exploration of the significance of children's rights, and a tremendous resource for those working with children and youth in institutional and educational settings.

The International Journal of Children’s Rights has been a major player in all this. Its impact is worldwide. It has established itself as the leading journal in the field. The journal is now in its 19th year, and is flourishing. This volume has been compiled not only to commemorate the journal’s work, but also the 20th anniversary of the Convention coming into operation, and of the first World Summit on Children. An anthology of the best articles published in these formative years, this volume offers a representative sample of what the journal has achieved. Some of the articles are ones which are frequently cited, whilst others are less well known; some deal with theory, others with practice. The case for children’s rights is to be found throughout this collection, as is the history of children’s rights.