On February 20th, Gulnaz Sibgatullina succesfully defended her doctoral thesis and graduated. The Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Gulnaz on this great result.

On 10 December Sarah-Devorah Poot won the Jaap Doek Children’s Rights Thesis Award 2019 for her thesis on child-friendly judgments.

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 the Leiden Law School. This year the thesis award will be presented for the fourth time.

On 15 February 2018, Simone van der Hof gave a keynote lecture entitled 'Data Protection and Children's Rights - the reasoning behind the protective provisions for children in the GDPR' at the International School of Amsterdam conference on Strategic marketing & communications for international scho…

The third generation of students of the Master of Laws: Advanced Studies in International Children’s Rights 2017-2018 received their much-coveted master diplomas on Monday 27 August.

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 the Leiden Law School.

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 the Leiden Law School.

Mozambican politician and child rights activist Graça Machel will receive an honorary doctorate from Leiden University for her commitment to the rights of women and children in Africa and elsewhere. She will be awarded the honorary doctorate on the Dies Natalis, the University’s foundation day, on 8…

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.

Alumnus Petri Freundlich received the first prize for his LL.M. thesis in the category Master’s theses and academic articles of the Max van der Stoel Human Rights awards 2017

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 Wednesday 18 May, the students of the LL.M. Advanced Studies in International Children’s Rights presented their work to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child with the aim to provide recommendations on how to make its decision more accessible to children.

The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) has accused Finland of violating the rights of Finnish children by leaving them in life-threatening conditions in Syrian camps. Ann Skelton, member of the committee, calls the situation 'inhuman'.

Leiden University’s Executive Board has appointed South African Professor Ann Skelton as the new Chair of Children’s Rights in a Sustainable World as of 1 October 2022.

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…

Mums posting photos and videos of their child on Instagram and TikTok and also earning loads of money doing so. Kidfluencers, momvloggers and familyvlogs are very popular, in the Netherlands too. But the lack of legislation regulating these activities means that these children are barely protected.…

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.

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…

This study attempts to understand how indigenous community institutions pose an important role in sustainable community-based development, including the integration between local culture and development.

Various guests with a background in human rights, law, politics and international relations will be taking part in the ‘Human Rights and the World Cup Qatar’ debate on Friday 30 September. Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) Secretary-General and Leiden alumnus Gijs de Jong will be there to provide…

On 27-28 January 2022, Leiden University’s interdisciplinary seed grant programme ‘Beyond Anthropocentric Interests and Values? Human Rights and Climate Change’ hosted a conference on human rights and climate change.

New Online Platform Launched to Support Global Children's Rights Legislative Reform

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’.

This new rotating professorship has been established to offer renowned academics the opportunity to teach and conduct research on international children's rights, while at the same time unlocking knowledge that has been acquired worldwide on children's rights.

On Thursday 2 June 2022, Olivia Serrano, a guest researcher in the GTGC programme, gave a presentation to the GTGC Global Justice and Human Rights stream. Olivia's presentation was about the Role of Independent Expert Committees in the Interpretation of Human Rights Treaties: the Right to Health as…

Immunologist Leender Trouw specialises in the complement system, which is part of the immune system. In some diseases drugs help activate or inhibit this system. This is best done ‘in the right place at the right time’ − the title of his inaugural lecture.

On Wednesday, 30 August 2023, the graduation ceremony took place in Leiden University’s Academy Building. The ceremony was a momentous occasion, attended by distinguished guests, faculty members, and the proud families and friends of the graduates. The event celebrated the hard work, dedication, and…

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.

Following periods of oppression and widespread violations of human rights, there is often a need for transitional vetting – a sort of ‘cleansing’ of the civil service. Where does this need come from? There are many answers to this question. But vetting, among other things, can contribute to recovering…

Stephanie Rap and Chrisje Sandelowsky-Bosman have contributed as authors to the online training manual for lawyers, that is developed as part of the training programme Advancing the Defence Rights of Children.

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.

On 25 November 2021, Jelena Belic presented her paper during a seminar organized by the GTGC Global Justice and Human Rights group. Her paper was about the Right to Withdraw from International Treaties: A Normative Analysis.

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…

On 24 February 2022, Melanie Fink from the Europe Institute at the Leiden Law School presented her research to the Global Justice and Human Rights thematic area during a research seminar.

This book considers the porous relationship between legality and illegality in Brazil, a country that presages political and societal changes in hitherto unprecedented dimensions.

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.

In this article, Gerrit Dijkstra and Jos Raadschelders from the Institute of Public Administration, argue that Bosnia-Herzegovina survives so far on the basis of negative legitimacy.

Researchers of the department of Child Law have submitted an advice to the Committee on the Rights of the Child of the United Nations, which monitors the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, on 7 January 2019.

Following the Mangold and Kücükdeveci case law of the CJEU, the horizontal direct effect of EU general principles and of provisions of the Charter of Fundamental Rights became a hotly debated issue.

Representatives of the Andean Community (Comunidad Andina/CAN) and its Member States met in Quito, Ecuador last month and approved a decision creating the ‘Andean Committee of Government Authorities on the rights of Indigenous Peoples.’

A variety of age checks are required, both in order to protect children and to ensure that they can participate online, a new study funded by the European Commission finds. The article on the study, co-authored by Simone van der Hof, Professor of Law and Digital Technologies at eLaw, was published in…

On 8-9 December 2016 the Department of Children’s Rights of Leiden Law School held an international PhD conference on Children’s Rights in Leiden, under the direction of Ton Liefaard, Julia Sloth-Nielsen and Marielle Bruning. As one of the institutional partners of this department in the research program…

The question of land property titles is a common source of conflict between indigenous communities and federal authorities all over the Americas. A new Panamanian law have led indigenous communities to reach out to archaeologist Dr Natalia Donner. A grant from the Centre for Indigenous American Studies…

Willem van der Muur's article on Indonesia's recent recognition of indigenous land rights was published by New Mandala.

Winners of Children's Rights Moot Court 2023

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.

On 28 October 2021, Matthew Hoye presented his paper during a seminar organized by the GTGC Global Justice and Human Rights group. His paper was about the Remittances and Global Justice: Paradoxes and Potentials.

Tan, former PhD candidate Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies, received the award for the best dissertation with his thesis on armed conflict, international humanitarian law and human rights law.