- Copyright Page
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- List of Contributors
- Introduction
- Images toward the Emancipation of Children in Modern Western Culture
- The Evolution of the Children’s Rights Movement
- Taking Children’s Human Rights Seriously
- The Interrelated and Interdependent Nature of Children’s Rights
- A Child-Centered Approach to Children’s Rights Law Living Rights and Translations
- A Socioecological Model of Children’s Rights
- Critical Race Theory and Children’s Rights
- Feminist Legal Theory and Children’s Rights
- Intersectionality and Children’s Rights
- The Best Interests of the Child
- Citizenship and Rights of Children
- The Child’s Right to Family
- Child Participation
- Juvenile Justice
- Placing Children’s Freedom from Violence at the Heart of the Policy Agenda
- Continuing Dilemmas of International Adoption
- Economic and Labor Rights of Children
- The Health Rights of Children
- Revisiting the Three ‘R’s in Order to Realize Children’s Educational Rights Relationships, Resources, and Redress
- Poverty and Children’s Rights
- Situating the Rights versus Culture Binary within the Context of Colonial History in Sub-Saharan Africa
- Climate Change and Children’s Rights
- Taking Part, Joining in, and Being Heard?: Ethnographic Explorations of Children’s Participation
- National Human Rights Institutions for Children
- Examining the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child through the Lens of Caste- and Descent-Based Discrimination
- Embracing Our LGBTQ Youth: A Child Rights Paradigm
- Indigenous Children
- Children with Disabilities: Achievements, Prospects, and Challenges Ahead
- Independent Children
- Trafficked Children
- Children in Armed Conflict
- Working Toward Recognition of the Rights of Migrant and Refugee Children
- Human Rights Education: Education about Children’s Rights
- Children’s Rights in the Twenty-First Century: Challenges and Opportunities
- Index
Abstract and Keywords
The best interests of the child principle is considered a pillar of children’s rights law and, according to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), is to be a primary consideration in all actions concerning children. Yet best interests is an elusive concept and principle that has no single authoritative definition or description. Internationally and domestically relevant in such diverse areas as family law, adoption, migration, and socioeconomic policymaking, the best interests principle requires flexibility and is best served by a case-by-case approach, as has been recognized by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and the European Court of Human Rights. This chapter analyzes relevant international case law and suggests the use of a number of safeguards to prevent such requisite flexibility from presenting a danger of paternalism, bias, or misuse.
Keywords: best interests, children’s rights, family law, adoption, European Court of Human Rights, unaccompanied minors, parental responsibilities
Wouter Vandenhole holds the Chair in Human Rights at the Faculty of Law of the University of Antwerp. He is the Director of an intensive training programme on sustainable development and global justice offered by the Law and Development Research Group. His research interests include children’s rights; economic, social, and cultural rights; and the relationship between human rights law and development. His current work focuses on the human rights obligations of foreign states and companies, and the conceptual implications of sustainable development for human rights law.
Gamze Erdem Türkelli is a Postdoctoral Fellow Fundamental Research of the Research Foundation (FWO) - Flanders (File Number: 12Q1719N) and a member of the Law and Development Research Group at the University of Antwerp.
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- Copyright Page
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- List of Contributors
- Introduction
- Images toward the Emancipation of Children in Modern Western Culture
- The Evolution of the Children’s Rights Movement
- Taking Children’s Human Rights Seriously
- The Interrelated and Interdependent Nature of Children’s Rights
- A Child-Centered Approach to Children’s Rights Law Living Rights and Translations
- A Socioecological Model of Children’s Rights
- Critical Race Theory and Children’s Rights
- Feminist Legal Theory and Children’s Rights
- Intersectionality and Children’s Rights
- The Best Interests of the Child
- Citizenship and Rights of Children
- The Child’s Right to Family
- Child Participation
- Juvenile Justice
- Placing Children’s Freedom from Violence at the Heart of the Policy Agenda
- Continuing Dilemmas of International Adoption
- Economic and Labor Rights of Children
- The Health Rights of Children
- Revisiting the Three ‘R’s in Order to Realize Children’s Educational Rights Relationships, Resources, and Redress
- Poverty and Children’s Rights
- Situating the Rights versus Culture Binary within the Context of Colonial History in Sub-Saharan Africa
- Climate Change and Children’s Rights
- Taking Part, Joining in, and Being Heard?: Ethnographic Explorations of Children’s Participation
- National Human Rights Institutions for Children
- Examining the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child through the Lens of Caste- and Descent-Based Discrimination
- Embracing Our LGBTQ Youth: A Child Rights Paradigm
- Indigenous Children
- Children with Disabilities: Achievements, Prospects, and Challenges Ahead
- Independent Children
- Trafficked Children
- Children in Armed Conflict
- Working Toward Recognition of the Rights of Migrant and Refugee Children
- Human Rights Education: Education about Children’s Rights
- Children’s Rights in the Twenty-First Century: Challenges and Opportunities
- Index
