48 student teams from all over the world will be taking part in the international online moot court competition. The event is organised by Leiden University in partnership with Baker McKenzie.

For refugee children, the right to information is of great importance to make their voice heard. Stephanie Rap is studying the child’s right to participate in the asylum procedure. She has also studied the working method of the Dutch Council for Refugees in this context.

Foster children’s behaviour is more problematic than that of their peers in ‘normal’ family situations. However, it is difficult to determine the exact cause of behavioural problems. Anouk Goemans, a researcher in clinical child and adolescent studies, calls for more screening and monitoring. PhD defence…

On 28 January 2015, Prof. Ton Liefaard participated in a panel discussion on

On Wednesday 5 July 2017 the Child Law Department and the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies of Leiden Law School hosted a festive drinks reception to celebrate 5 years of the Frontiers of Children's Rights Summer School, that has welcomed professionals, researchers and students from all…

As a prelude to the Night of Discoveries, an Afternoon of Discoveries will be held in Leiden on 21 September for children from the age of eight. Researchers will tell exciting tales and the children will get to do experiments.

The rights of children born through international commercial surrogacy are at risk of being overlooked or even violated. Lawmakers, judges and commissioning parents should be more aware of this and take protective action throughout the surrogacy procedure. This is the conclusion reached by lawyer and…

The study ‘From Law to Practice: Towards a Roadmap to Strengthen Children’s Rights in the Era of Biomedicine’ written by experts from Leiden Law School and submitted to the Council of Europe’s Committee on Bioethics is now available online.

Last Thursday, June 8th, Ton Liefaard (UNICEF Chair in Children’s Rights and Program Director of the Master of Laws: Advanced Studies in International Children’s Rights, LL.M. program) and Daniella Zlotnik (researcher and lecturer at the child law department) visited the Committee on Bioethics at the…

‘The idea that overweight and obesity are the fault of parents and/or the child, is rubbish.' Roxanna Camfferman, who specialises in child and adolescent studies, explains her proposition. Her PhD dissertation is on the role of upbringing in child obesity.

The latest newsletter of the Master of Laws Programme: Advanced Studies in International Children’s Rights and the UNICEF Chair in Children’s Rights of Leiden Law School, Department of Child Law has been published.

The easy-to-learn programming language Hedy is a huge worldwide success. To develop the language further, Felienne Hermans, associate professor at the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS), started a crowdfunding.

In September 2016, the educational programme Universe Awareness (UNAWE) implemented a series of educational activities at Basisschool De Verrekijker, a primary school for refugee children in Katwijk, the Netherlands.

What is the effect of training children to exercise self-control? Niko Steinbeis has been awarded a major European subsidy to find the answer to this question. The innovative aspects of this research are the target group, an individual approach to the training and examining the child brain the scann…

Professor Ann Skelton, Rotating Honorary Chair of Enforcement of Children's Rights 2020/2021 at the Department of Child Law, has been re-elected as member of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child.

In collaboration with the De Waag Technology & Society, Simone van der Hof of the Centre for Law and Digital Technology (eLaw department) will develop a code for digital children's rights based on the example of the age appropriate design code in Great Britain.

Young children exhibit more aggressive behaviour if their nervous system fails to respond adequately to stress situations and if they are exposed to risk factors such as smoking or psychological problems experienced by the mother during the pregnancy. This is the conclusion of PhD candidate Jill Suurland.…

Leiden chemists recreated the bacterial capsule of meningococcus in the lab. With a few modifications, these capsules can serve as an extra safe and effective vaccine against these notorious bacteria, which can cause, for example, meningitis. PhD candidate Jacopo Enotarpi and his team published the…

Dr. Willy de Heer defended her PhD Thesis

On 18 March 2020, Hoko Horii defended her thesis ‘Child Marriage as a Choice. Rethinking agency in international human rights’. The doctoral research was supervised by prof. A.W. Bedner and prof. G.A. van Klinken.

On 6 September 2019, the Governor of Murang'a County, Mwangi wa Iria, signed a declaration at Leiden University to protect the rights of children.

As a member of the international advisory board, Prof. Dr. Ton Liefaard, participated in the final expert meeting of the United Nations Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty, in Venice from 11-13 March 2019.

The Department of Child Law and the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies of Leiden University are now accepting applications for the Frontiers of Children’s Rights in the Caribbean Region Spring School.

On the 6th of December, Céril van Leeuwen has won the Jaap Doek Children’s rights thesis award for her thesis ‘The right to be heard restricted: is this desirable in the civil law proceedings?’ This award, for the best master thesis in the area of Children’s Rights, is annually granted by Defence for…

The amici curiae brief was filed with the United States District Court for the Central District of California, on 28 January 2020.

On 24-25 October 2017, the Council of Europe organized an international conference to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine (Oviedo Convention).

Digitisation and poor reception of refugees are putting children’s rights at risk. This warning comes from Professor Ton Liefaard. His department is organising a summer school on this issue.

In 2019 UNICEF published the situation analysis of children and adolescents in the Caribbean Netherlands, commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Interior and Kingdom Relations. It is a follow-up to the first round of situation analysis on children’s rights in the Caribbean Netherlands, which was completed…

Prof. Ton Liefaard connected to around 150 legal professionals in India and beyond to reflect upon the COVID-response of governments from a children’s rights perspective.

A delegation of the Child Law Department has attended the World congress on family law and children’s rights in Dublin, from 4-7 June. This congress organised once in every four years was hosted by prof. Ursula Kilkelly (University College Cork). Over 600 people attended the congress; professionals…

On Friday 13 April 2018, the Department of Child Law of Leiden University was proud to host the international symposium 'Deprivation of Liberty of Children in The Justice System – Towards A Global Research Agenda', organised by Prof. Dr. Ton Liefaard and Dr. Yannick van den Brink.

On 12 December 2019, Dr Yannick van den Brink, assistant professor at the Department of Child Law and Rubicon Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge, gave a keynote speech at the conference ‘Strengthening Juvenile Justice Systems in Europe’, which was organised in Valencia, Spain.

An investigation by Dutch news site RTL Nieuws reveals that an error at the Regional Institute for Juvenile Outpatient Mental Healthcare (Jeugdriagg), has led to the files of children, many with serious psychological problems, being leaked.

The Jaap Doek Children’s Rights Thesis Award is an annual award for the best thesis in the field of Children’s Rights granted by Defence for Children and the Department of Child Law of Leiden Law School.

On November 17, 2017, Professor Simone van der Hof gave a duo lecture with her colleague Professor Eva Lievens from Ghent University during the 'Children and Digital Rights' conference at the Information Law and Policy Centre, which is part of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (University of L…

Terrorism experts Daan Weggemans (Leiden University) and Beatrice de Graaf (Utrecht University) conducted one of the first scientific studies on the societal reintegration of jihadist former detainees. They showed that the reintegration process isn't without problems. Their conlusions are presented…

We are proud of Chelsea Schuin, Xin Jiang, Siksanee Phollarpthawee and Lucy Opoka for their outstanding research and writing performance in the Children’s Rights Moot Court .

Mexico is currently facing an unprecedented social and political crisis, with expanding criminal and political violence, rampant impunity and crumbling political institutions. Next to the daily report of anonymous victims of violence, last summer in Central Mexico at least 15 citizens were executed…

In early January, Joanne van der Leun (Dean of the Leiden Law School), Ton Liefaard (Program Director of the Advanced Studies in International Children’s Rights, LL.M), and Anette van Sandwijk (Head Bureau International Education) visited China.

In a podcast of the Netherlands Internet Governance Forum (NL GF) and the Safer Internet Centre Nederland, Simone van der Hof, Professor of Law and Digital Technologies at Leiden University and Thijs Hannema, a lawyer at Kennedy van der Laan, discuss online privacy of children.

In the presence of their families and friends, the thesis supervisors personally addressed each of the students and presented them with their well-deserved master diploma in the Academy Building’s Klein Auditorium.

Debate

During an episode of Dutch television talk show PAUW on Monday 24 July, presenter Jeroen Pauw discussed the new threat assessment recently published by the Dutch National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism (NCTV). Jelle van Buuren, Assistant Professor Terrorism and Political Violence at Leiden…

In the last five years the Dutch children’s ombudsman has developed into a full-fledged supervisory body monitoring compliance with children’s rights in the Netherlands. A fuller engagement with its statutory tasks, greater involvement of children and strengthening the autonomous position of the children’s…

From 9-12 April 2018, the Department of Child and the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies have organised in cooperation with the Asia-Europe Foundation a training programme on Human Rights and Children.

Children are often able to decide for themselves whether they want to take part in medical research. In order to be able to make an informed decision, they need clear information. PhD candidate Ronella Grootens set a good example and created a cartoon story. PhD defence 6 December.

At the start of 2020, the book ‘Safeguarding Children’s Rights in Immigration Law’ was published by Intersentia.