Routledge International Handbook of Children's Rights Studies

"In the years since the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) childrens rights have assumed a central position in a wide variety of disciplines and policies. This handbook offers an engaging overview of the contemporary researchlandscape for those people engaged in the theory and practice of childrens rights. The volume consists of two parts with the first providing an insight into interdisciplinary approaches to childrens rights, with contributions from history, childhood studies, sociology, social work and educational sciences, law, anthropology, and gender studies. The second part considers key issues in childrens rights situating them at the intersection of the global and the local. This combination of disciplinary approaches and thematic analysis allows the reader to gain a deep understanding of childrens rights. The handbook takes a critical approach to the topic, questioning and analysing assumptions underlying childrens rights practices. The specially commissioned chapters have been written by renowned scholars and researchers working in the field and come together to provide an invaluable guide to the challenges and dilemmas currently facing childrens rights"--

Wouter Vandenhole 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). He is the spokesperson of the Law and Development Research Group and chairs the European Research Networking Programme GLOTHRO. He has published widely on economic, social and cultural rights, children’s rights and transnational human rights obligations and is a founding member of the Flemish Children’s Rights Knowledge Centre and co-convener of the international interdisciplinary course on children’s rights.

Ellen Desmet is a post-doctoral fellow at the Law and Development Research Group of the University of Antwerp and the Human Rights Centre of Ghent University (Belgium). Before, she was a research and policy staff member at the Children’s Rights Knowledge Centre, and taught anthropology of law at the University of Leuven.

Didier Reynaert is a lecturer in social work at the Faculty of Education Health and Social work of the University College Ghent, he is involved in several research projects in the field of child and youth policy and children’s rights. He is member of the board of the Flemish Children’s Rights Knowledge Centre. Previously, he worked for the Flemish Children’s Rights Coalition, the Child Legal Centre and as a civil servant at the Ministry of the Flemish Community on youth protection.

Sara Lembrechts is fulltime staff member at the Children’s Rights Knowledge Centre (KeKi), where she is responsible for the collection and dissemination of children’s rights research, as well as for policy advice to the Flemish government.