Intense political, social and scientific efforts to improve the position of children are converging rapidly, centered on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. It is therefore reasonable to assume that there is broad consensus in the international community on how to take the position of children in society seriously. Despite the unique success of the Convention, the situation is such that it forces us, as a matter of urgency, to explore, develop and implement guarantees for effective monitoring of the implementation of the Convention's provisions. In the end, rights are only effective when implemented. This book, containing the contributions made and discussed at the European Conference on Monitoring Children's Rights (organized by Ghent University's Children's Rights Centre in December 1994), presents the results of interdisciplinary research into monitoring to a wider scientific forum. Several monitoring issues are tackled, with particular emphasis on the reporting system: what should be reported (the content of the reports) and who should report (the more formal and procedural aspects of reporting)? Apart from a suitable monitoring mechanism, there is also the self-executing force of the Convention, making it directly enforceable in national courts. Ongoing and dynamic monitoring can be a powerful impetus to making systematic progress in this area. The debate on monitoring the Children's Rights Convention may in this way expand into an attractive and exemplary debate on human rights conventions in general. This book will therefore not only meet the requirements of all those working in the field of children's rights, but can also provide appealing material for all those involved in the field of monitoring human rights.

This Advanced Introduction offers a succinct yet comprehensive introduction to the multidisciplinary field of children’s rights. Inspired by the dilemma of difference in the discussion of children’s rights, chapters explore the equal rights that children share with adults as well as their differentiated and special 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.

This open access book presents a discussion on human rights-based attributes for each article pertinent to the substantive rights of children, as defined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). It provides the reader with a unique and clear overview of the scope and core content of the articles, together with an analysis of the latest jurisprudence of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. For each article of the UNCRC, the authors explore the nature and scope of corresponding State obligations, and identify the main features that need to be taken into consideration when assessing a State’s progressive implementation of the UNCRC. This analysis considers which aspects of a given right are most important to track, in order to monitor States' implementation of any given right, and whether there is any resultant change in the lives of children. This approach transforms the narrative of legal international standards concerning a given right into a set of characteristics that ensure no aspect of said right is overlooked. The book develops a clear and comprehensive understanding of the UNCRC that can be used as an introduction to the rights and principles it contains, and to identify directions for future policy and strategy development in compliance with the UNCRC. As such, it offers an invaluable reference guide for researchers and students in the field of childhood and children’s rights studies, as well as a wide range of professionals and organisations concerned with the subject.

Chapters How Human Rights Cross-Pollinate and Take Root: Local Governments & Refugees in Turkey by Elif Durmuş and Human Rights Localisation and Individual Agency: From ‘Hobby of the Few’ to the Few Behind the Hobby by Tihomir Sabchev, Sara Miellet, and Elif Durmuş are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com This book seeks to explore, from a multidisciplinary perspective, whether human rights are, in fact, a myth or a lived reality. Over the years much has been said about their effectiveness or, rather, their ineffectiveness. This perceived ineffectiveness relates not only to institutional challenges at the international level, but also to national implementation mechanisms and processes. In addition, questions have arisen as to whether individuals or groups of individuals actually benefit from the normative guarantees contained in human rights law and whether human rights as legal constructs can be effectively translated into better outcomes. This volume can be distinguished from the existing literature by virtue of the fact that it not only brings together scholars at different stages of their careers, but also that it incorporates contributions that adopt different methodological perspectives and cover a variety of topics. The book should prove of great benefit to human rights researchers, human rights practitioners, NGOs and students. Claire Boost is a PhD Candidate at the Department of Criminal Law and Criminology, Maastricht University. Andrea Broderick is an Assistant Professor at the Department of International and European Law, Maastricht University. Fons Coomans is a Professor at the UNESCO Chair in Human Rights and Peace, Department of International and European Law, Maastricht University. Roland Moerland is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Criminal Law and Criminology, Maastricht University.