Case note in Leiden Children's Rights Observatory on kafala and family reunification
The case note examines the recent views adopted by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child on a communication against Belgium.
The third case note of the Leiden Children's Rights Observatory, written by Gamze Erdem Türkelli (Post-Doctoral Fellow Research Foundation (FWO) Flanders, University of Antwerp) and Wouter Vandenhole (Chair of Human Rights and UNICEF Chair of Children’s Rights, University of Antwerp), is now available online.
The case note examines the recent views adopted by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child on a communication against Belgium. The authors of the communication had been providing accommodation to the child victim in the context of a kafala. The authors – who brought the communication on behalf of the child victim – alleged that Belgium derailed their various attempts to reunite with the child in Belgium, violating several rights of the child victim under the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The case note presents the views of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in the matter and includes an interesting commentary on the legal boundaries of family reunification under the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the legal position of children in migration policies and rules.