Human Rights Monitoring and Implementation: How To Make Rights ‘Real’ in Children’s Lives

The collection aims to inspire readers with new approaches to implementing and monitoring the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, to make rights ‘real’ in children’s lives.

Children’s human rights are internationally recognised in the legally binding international treaty―the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the most ratified of all human rights treaties. Although measures are increasingly being taken to implement the Convention at a national level, more needs to be done to ensure that children’s rights are recognised and supported in their daily lives. This collection brings together the latest research on new approaches to embedding children’s rights into national law and policies, with contributions from academics, practitioners and importantly young activists, from the UK and beyond. This book will be of interest to all human rights advocates, particularly policy makers and practitioners looking for new ways in which to make children’s rights real.

The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of The International Journal of Human Rights.

Andressa Gadda is currently the Head of Policy and Research at the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry. She previously worked as a Research Fellow at the Child Protection Research Centre (University of Edinburgh, UK) and the Centre for Child Wellbeing and Protection (University of Stirling, UK).

Juliet Harris is Director of Together (Scottish Alliance for Children’s Rights). She leads the organisation in promoting and monitoring the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and works with a membership of over 380 organisations and professionals to further children’s human rights in legislation, policy and practice.

E. Kay M. Tisdall is Professor of Childhood Policy at the University of Edinburgh, UK. She is part of the Childhood and Youth Studies Research Group at MHSES. She has a long-standing interest in children and young people’s participation, from her policy and research work.

Elizabeth Millership has held various children’s rights roles in policy, research and consultancy including a long-standing association with Together.

Ursula Kilkelly is Professor of Law at the School of Law, University College Cork, Ireland. She has published widely on children’s rights, focusing on the legal implementation of children’s rights. She is especially known for the policy and practical impact of her work at national and European levels.