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The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child: A Study of Legal Implementation in 12 Countries

UNICEF UK has published The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child: a study of legal implementation in 12 countries, which looks in countries beyond the UK in order to compile evidence of the most effective and impactful ways of embedding children’s rights into domestic law. The 12 countries (Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, Spain, Sweden) were chosen to demonstrate the variety of ways in which different places have provided for children’s rights at the national level by taking steps to implement the Convention. The research was led by Professor Laura Lundy, Director of the Centre for Children’s Rights at Queen’s University Belfast ( www.qub.ac.uk/ccr), collaborating with Professor Ursula Kilkelly at University College Cork.

This study of legal implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 12 countries was conducted on behalf of UNICEF UK by Laura Lundy, Bronagh Byrne and Jason Kang of the Centre for Children’s Rights at Queen’s University Belfast and Ursula Kilkelly of Faculty
of Law, University College Cork.

The aim is to analyse the most effective, practical and impactful ways of embedding children’s rights into UK domestic law. The research team selected the 12 countries to demonstrate the variety of ways in which countries with common or civil law legal systems have provided for children’s rights at national level by taking steps to implement the CRC. This study provides an international context to compare the current status in the United Kingdom, more specifically England, and the
devolved jurisdictions of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

The Centre for Children’s Rights at Queen’s University Belfast is an interdisciplinary research collaboration that focuses on two distinct but interconnected strands of research and teaching activity: • Children’s rights – using the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and other relevant international standards to evaluate the laws, policies and practices that affect children’s lives. • Research with children – evaluating the best methods of conducting research on children’s lives with a particular focus on approaches that involve children actively in the research process.

The report is available at http://www.unicef.org.uk/Documents/Publications/UNICEFUK_2012CRCimplementationreport%20FINAL%20PDF%20version.pdf

Contact Details:

Centre for Children’s Rights
School of Education
Queen’s University Belfast
69–71 University Street
Belfast BT7 1HL
Northern Ireland
www.qub.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)28 9097 3323
Email: education@qub.ac.uk

Tags: ["unicef", "report", "publication", "child research", "UN Convention on the Rights of the Child", "research with children", "child participation", "international standards", "public policies", "legal system", "international human rights"] By Ursula Kilkelly, Laura Lundy, Bronagh Byrne, Jason Kang
Published Jan. 14, 2013 8:38 PM - Last modified Apr. 17, 2013 3:33 PM