The child is not dead not at Langa nor at Nyanga not at Orlando nor at Sharpeville nor at the police station at Philippi where he lies with a bullet through his brain … the child is present at all assemblies and law-givings… The reprise of South African place names at the heart of Ingrid Jonker’s poem, a poem recited first by Oliver Tambo at the beginning of the end of apartheid, and then by his successor Nelson Mandela at its end, continues to play out. Years later the infants, children and teens targeted and the sites of the atrocities are different but the crime is the same. Though consistent with the elements of the crime against humanity of persecution, and the serious breach of international law it entails consistent with the nature and definition of a peremptory norm, it appears in public international law and its justice implements as an apparition. Like Ingrid Jonker’s child spectre ‘present at all assemblies and…
Rights of the Child
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Extraction and Indigenous Culture: UN Bodies’ Views on the Indigenous Right to Culture, the Indigenous Right to Land, and Resource Extraction
In October 2024, the Committees on the Rights of the Child (CCRC) and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) published their Views in three communications against Finland. Both Committees concluded that the country had violated the rights of individuals in the Kova-Labba Siida (a Sámi community) by granting a…
Lithuania’s Constitutional Court Rules Seeing Same-Sex Relationships Won’t Turn Kids Gay
On 18 December 2024, the Lithuanian Constitutional Court held that the law, prohibiting the dissemination of public information depicting same-sex relationships is unconstitutional as it violates the freedom of thought of children and the right to found a family under the Constitution of Lithuania. The decision follows the rationale of the European Court of Human…
35 years after the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the best interests of the child remain a contentious issue: A case study on the repatriation of children from ISIS
On 20 November 1989, States ratified what would become the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). Its Article 3 establishes the best interests of the child as a primary consideration in all actions concerning children. However, 35 years after its adoption, we are…
General Comment No.26 on Children and the Environment – A Milestone in International Human Rights Law?
22 August 2023 saw the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child publish its much-anticipated General Comment No.26 on Children’s Rights and the Environment, with a Special Focus on Climate Change (GC26). The General Comment sets out a framework for a child rights-based approach to environmental protection, addressing issues ranging from access to justice and remedies…
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