The third edition of the bi-annual Children's Rights Moot Court has come to a spectacular end in the first week of April.

In a collaborative effort between the Leiden Children’s Rights Observatory, the Leiden Law Academy, UNICEF and the Petitions Section of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, a symposium held last week commemorated the tenth anniversary of the Optional Protocol to the Convention…

On 22 and 23 November 2018, the international conference ‘Safeguarding Children’s Rights in Immigration Law’ organized by the Institute of Immigration Law and the Department of Child Law took place at Leiden University. Currently, there exists tension between the idea that children deserve specific…

Leiden Law School is pleased to announce that Professor Ursula Kilkelly, School of Law, University College Cork, Ireland, will visit Leiden in academic year 2022/2023 as Rotating Honorary Chair ‘Enforcement of Children’s Rights’.

On the occasion of the launch of the Council of Europe’s new children’s rights strategy 2016-2021, the Republic of Bulgaria hosted a high-level conference in Sofia on the 5th and 6th of April, 2016.

Jonathan Todres appointed as Rotating Honorary Chair in Enforcement of Children’s Rights 2024/2025

On Friday 12 January 2018, the University of Curaçao celebrated its 39 years of existence. Prof. Ton Liefaard , Professor of Children’s Rights and UNICEF Chair in Children’s Rights addressed the audience with a lecture entitled: “20 years United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Do we…

On 7 December, Meghan Ingram won the Jaap Doek Children’s Rights Thesis Award 2021 for her thesis on the rights of children of foreign terrorist fighters held in Syria. The prize for the best master’s thesis in the field of children’s rights is awarded every year by Defence for Children and the Department…

From 5 to 9 March 2018, the Child Law Department and the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies of Leiden Law School and the School of Law of the University of Curaçao Dr. Moises Da Costa Gomez hosted a Spring School on Children’s Rights in the Caribbean Region in Curaçao.

From 24 to 28 June the 7th edition of Leiden University’s annual Frontiers of Children’s Rights Summer School took place in Leiden and The Hague.

On 1 November 2023, Professor Ton Liefaard presented research on the rights of undocumented children to the Council of Ministers of Curaçao.

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.

Professor Dr. Ton Liefaard, UNICEF Chair in Children’s Rights, has been elected as member of the Steering Committee of the Children’s Rights European Academic Network (CREAN).

The Department of Child Law of Leiden University and Defence for Children invite you to the ninth Jaap Doek Children’s Rights Thesis Award ceremony, which will take place online, on Tuesday 7 December from 15.30 onwards (in English).

On 30 October 2017, the current class of students of the advanced LL.M. programme International Children’s Rights visited the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Professor Ann Skelton has been elected as Chairperson of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child.

On 25 October 2017, the current class of students of the advanced LL.M. programme International Children’s Rights visited juvenile detention center ‘De Hunnerberg’ in Nijmegen (the Netherlands).

The Child Law Department of Leiden University and Defence for Children kindly invites you to the fourth Jaap Doek Children’s Rights Thesis Award Ceremony and the official launch of the book ‘The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Taking Stock after 25 Years and Looking Ahead’ (Brill…

Graduation Ceremony of the LL.M. Advanced Studies in International Children’s Rights 2023-2024

After a year of hard work, the second class of students of the Master of Laws: Advanced Studies in International Children’s Rights received their well-deserved master diplomas on Monday 28 August.

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.

The procedures for admitting minor asylum seekers from Camp Moria on Lesbos to the Netherlands are in breach of children’s rights according to Ton Liefaard, Professor of Children’s Rights and Peter Rodrigues, Professor of Immigration Law.

On Wednesday 12 December 2018, the department of Child Law, on the initiative of dr. Yannick van den Brink, dr. Stephanie Rap en prof. dr. Ton Liefaard), organized an expert meeting on ‘Equality, children’s rights and digital technologies’. The objective of the meeting was an in-depth exchange of ideas…

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 .

The staff of the Master of Laws: Advanced Studies in International Children’s Rights is extremely proud.

A new report on admissibility under the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) on a Communications Procedure (OP3) has been published.

Are you interested in meeting Bede Sheppard, Human Rights Watch’s Deputy Director of the Children’s Rights Department? Bede will be at LUC on Thursday the 26th of May for the #WatchOurSchools event in the auditorium, and we are giving our students the chance to meet with him before. In order to win…

After a year of hard work, the first class of students from the Master of Laws: Advanced Studies in International Children’s Rights received their well-deserved master diplomas on Monday 29 August.

From Monday 7 to Friday 11 June 2021, the fourth (virtual) edition of The Children’s Rights Moot Court Competition takes place.

On Monday 24 August 2020 a small, intimate gathering of graduating students and staff took place in the Leiden University Academy Building’s Groot Auditorium. The other students participated online.

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…

Alumna Nadia Kadhim started in 2017 as a corporate lawyer implementing the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) at one of the companies where she volunteered. By late 2022 she had received both a Most Inspiring Women in Cyber Award and was on the Forbes 30 under 30 list with her legal start-up…

To what extent are the rights to street children violated en how can their rights be protected?

During the Summer School, held at Leiden Law School in Leiden and the Hague, the participants were offered a wealth of lectures and workshops on international and regional children’s rights issues affecting children, families and communities.

From 26 until 28 January Leiden Law School hosted the regional training for lawyers as part of the EU funded project Advancing the Defence Rights of Children, organized by Fair Trials.

Comprehensive, scholarly compilation of legal studies of substantive and procedural children’s rights, breaking new ground by analysing a wide range of international children's rights issues.

Children have the right to play and relax. Games, social media and video platforms are attractive new ways to do that. However, hardly any online games are designed specifically for children, nor do they factor in children's rights.

On 8 February, the Leiden University Fund will officially launch the LUF Children’s Fund! For one year, we will support research projects by Leiden scientists aimed at creating a better future for vulnerable children.

To what extent does the Law Ombudsperson for Children achieve its goals as intended by the legislator when introducing the law?

On 10 December Walter Burkard won the Jaap Doek Children’s Rights Thesis Award 2020 for his thesis on climate change and children’s rights. The prize for the best master’s thesis in the field of children’s rights is awarded every year by Defence for Children and the Department of Child Law of Leiden…

From Wednesday 20 October 2021 to Thursday 21 April 2022, Leiden Children’s Rights Observatory and the Centre for Constitutional Studies of the Supreme Court of Mexico organize an Online Webinar Series on Children’s Access to Justice and the Optional Protocol on a Communications Procedure (OP3)

On 27 January 2020, Dr Yannick van den Brink, Assistant Professor at the Department of Child Law, participated in a live webinar titled ‘Pre-Trial Detention of Children in India’.

On 20 November 2015, on the occasion of Universal Children’s Day, the Council of Europe and the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights launched the Handbook on European law relating to the rights of the child.

In the context of the 2021 Day of General Discussion of the UN Committee on Rights of the Child, this time dedicated to alternative care, Defence for Children in collaboration with Leiden University has contributed with a paper on the 2019 Dutch Inquiry Committee on Historical Child Abuse in Alternative…