Enhancing Children's Rights ― Connecting Research, Policy and Practice

Achieving social justice for children motivates researchers to explore issues that make a difference to children's lives. Advocates for children rely on research to help argue for policy changes, and policy-makers and practitioners look to research to guide their work. This book examines the relationship between rights, research, policy and practice, and how the links between them, can promote children's rights. Connections between the moral imperative of children's rights, and research, can lead to better policies, in the right political context. This international book outlines the relevance of theory and research to diverse areas of children's policy - including early childhood education, health, law, recreation, child protection and poverty – and shows the importance of smooth pathways and partnerships between researchers, child advocates, practitioners, and policy-makers. Scholars and advocates from Australia, Chile, China, England, Ireland, Kosovo, India, Lithuania, New Zealand, Norway, Scotland and the United States contributed chapters to the book.

Anne Smith is Emeritus Professor at the University of Otago, New Zealand. She has previously published Understanding Children and Childhood (2013), and received the Marion Langer Award from the American Orthopsychiatric Association in 2009 for her research and advocacy.