Over the past 100 years or so, the framework of children's rights has gained an important place not only in policy and practice, but also in academia. The anchoring of children’s rights scholarship is such that one can talk about a field of ‘children's rights studies.’ Although this field of ‘children’s rights studies’ is very diverse in terms of academic disciplines, geographic spread and topics, the dominant perspective within this field can be briefly summarised as a ‘top-down understanding’ of children’s rights. Such an approach principally considers children’s rights as objective standards that simply need implementation in practice or policy. What is lacking in this field of ‘children’s rights studies’ is a critical perspective, i.e., an approach that considers children’s rights a ‘contested terrain’ with different (conflicting) normative foundations and traditions. This is especially important now as children’s rights are, arguably, under siege. To explore what a critical approach to children's rights means, this panel discussion brings together key thinkers in the emerging field of critical children’s rights studies to explore the limitations of dominant children’s rights discourses, expand on what a critical children's rights stance means, and outline what it can offer to existing rights discourses. 

The panellists for this discussion will be:

Professor Valeria Llobet, Universidad de San Martín, Argentina

Dr. Didier Reynaert, HOGENT University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Belgium

Professor Wouter Vandenhole, University of Antwerp, Belgium

Speaker Bios

Panellists

Valeria Llobet is a Full Professor in the School of Humanities, Universidad de San Martín, and researcher in CONICET (National Council of Research) - both based in Argentina. Her interests are the micropolitics of childhood, childhood and gender rights and the politics of inequalities. Her current research project is entitled ‘Children, youth, and families: social transformation, care crisis and future(s) in the long-covid.’ She has served twice as Chair of the Childhood Studies track of the Latin American Studies Association and is the current President of the RC53 Sociology of Childhood, International Sociological Association. She was lead editor of the recently published volume, South American Childhoods, Studies in Childhood and Youth. 

Didier Reynaert is a Lecturer in Social Work and a senior researcher at the EQUALITY//ResearchCollective of HOGENT University of Applied Sciences and Arts, School of Social Welfare (Belgium). His expertise lies in the field of social work theory, social justice, human rights, and children's rights. A key focus in his research is the development of a human rights-based approach to social work. His research interests include the non-realisation of rights, accessibility of social services, child poverty, peer support and experts by experience, community care and child well-being. He is the co-founder and current chairperson of the Board of the Children’s Rights Knowledge Centre and member of the Advisory Committee of the Flemish Children’s Rights Commissioner. 

Wouter Vandenhole holds the chair in human rights at the faculty of law of the University of Antwerp (Belgium). Between 2007 and 2018, he also held the UNICEF Chair in Children's Rights. He chairs the academic working party of the University Foundation for Poverty Alleviation and the non-governmental solidarity organisation, Broederlijk Delen. Vandenhole is a human rights and law-and-development scholar. His research interests include children's rights, economic, social, and cultural rights, new human rights duty-bearers and the relationship between human rights law and development. He is a Series Editor for Law, Development and Global Justice (Edward Elgar) and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Human Rights Practice (OUP). 

Chair

Afua Twum-Danso Imoh is Associate Professor in Global Childhoods and Welfare at the University of Bristol and Head of the Children and Families Research Centre which is based in the School for Policy Studies. Much of her work focuses on constructions of childhoods; children’s rights and social and cultural norms; parent-child relations; the impact of historical developments on constructions of childhood and child rearing practices; and problematising the binary between the Global North and the Global South. Much of this research has concentrated on Ghana. She is a Series Editor for the Palgrave Childhood and Youth Series and serves on the editorial boards of the journals, Childhood, Children & Society and Third World Thematic.
 

The event will be chaired by Dr. Afua Twum-Danso Imoh, University of Bristol. The event is organised by the Centre for Children and Families Research in the School for Policy Studies (www.bristol.ac.uk/sps/research/centres/family/). 

To register to attend this in person event, please visit The Online Shop linked below
University of Bristol Online Shop

This is an open event being held in the Global Lounge, University of Bristol, First Floor, Senate House, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TH and all are welcome.