A comprehensive analysis and innovative, holistic interpretation of the child's right to development.

This book provides a comprehensive account of how child development and the right to development of children have been understood in international children's rights law. It argues that any conceptions of childhood focussed either on children's future as adults, or on children's lives in the present, overlook the hybridity of children's lived experiences. The book therefore suggests a new conception of childhood - namely, 'hybrid childhood' - which accommodates respect for children's agency and human dignity in the present, in the process of growth, and in the outcomes of this process when the child becomes an adult. Consequently, and building on the capability approach's idea of human development, the book presents a radical new interpretation of the child's right to development under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. It offers a comprehensive interpretation of the right to development, which is one of the four guiding principles of the Convention.

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.

Considers how to implement children's rights in the twenty-first century through a child rights-based approach to sustainable development.

This book is devoted to the 25th anniversary of the United Nations Declaration on the Right to Development. It contains a collection of analytical studies of various aspects of the right to development, which include the rule of law and good governance, aid, trade, debt, technology transfer, intellectual property, access to medicines and climate change in the context of an enabling environment at the local, regional and international levels. It also explores the issues of poverty, women and indigenous peoples within the theme of social justice and equity. The book considers the strides that have been made over the years in measuring progress in implementing the right to development and possible ways forward to make the right to development a reality for all in an increasingly fragile, interdependent and ever-changing world.

In 2014 the world’s most widely ratified human rights treaty, one specifically for children, reached the milestone of its twenty-fifth anniversary. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and in the time since then it has entered a new century, reshaping laws, policies, institutions and practices across the globe, along with fundamental conceptions of who children are, their rights and entitlements, and society’s duties and obligations to them. Yet despite its rapid entry into force worldwide, there are concerns that the Convention remains a high-level paper treaty without the traction on the ground needed to address ever-continuing violations of children’s rights. This book, based on papers from the conference ‘25 Years CRC’ held by the Department of Child Law at Leiden University, draws together a rich collection of research and insight by academics, practitioners, NGOs and other specialists to reflect on the lessons of the past 25 years, take stock of how international rights find their way into children’s lives at the local level, and explore the frontiers of children’s rights for the 25 years ahead.

This comprehensive and in-depth study on the understanding and interpretation of the child's right to survival and development provides a compact assessment of article 6(2) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in light of its drafting history, the reports of the Committee on the Rights of the Child and other relevant sources appropriate to the discipline of international human rights law.The author analyses the travaux prparatoires of the CRC and the academic work of some of its drafters. The book includes an interview with one of the drafters and explores the literature of the Committee on the Rights of the Child with respect to article 6(2) and how its understanding and interpretations of this article have developed over time. It examines the weaknesses and strengths in relation to the observations it has made and explores the legal effects of the Committee's classifications and makes suggestions for others as well.Importantly, the book also discusses the relationship between the right of the child to survival and development and his/her dignity. It provides an understanding of the child's physical, mental, spiritual, moral and cognitive development in the context of his/her right to survival and development. In addition, the author discusses various State obligations aiming at the enjoyment of the right to survival and development and also touches on global warming and its relationship with the right of the child to survival and development.The reader will gain an understanding of different approaches to the interpretation of human rights treaties in general, and attitudes towards the assessment of the work of the Committee on the Rights of the Child. He will also learn about the connection between the right to development and the economic and social rights of the child on the one hand, and the right of the child to survival and development on the other hand. Moreover, the book introduces the concept of comprehensiveness and individuality of the right of the child to survival and development and fundamentally argues that there is still more to add to the understanding and interpretations of article 6(2) of the CRC.