No abstract

This article reports on the findings of a 2009 survey conducted under the auspices of the Childwatch International Research Network about how children’s participation rights, as set out in Articles 12 and 13 of the UNCRC, are respected in private family law proceedings internationally. Court-based and alternative dispute resolution processes and the roles of relevant professionals engaged in child-inclusive practices are considered, as well as religious, indigenous and customary law methods of engaging with children. The findings from the 13 participating countries confirm an increasing international commitment to enhancing children’s participation in family law decision-making, but depict a wide variety of approaches being used to achieve this. Case studies from Australia, India, Israel and New Zealand are included to illustrate differing models of children’s participation currently in use in decision-making processes following parental separation.

No abstract

No abstract

In the early 1990s, soon after Israel had ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Israeli Supreme Court issued several rulings that focused on the issue of children's rights, which would now be addressed as a fundamentally new doctrine. Presented as reflecting a significant change in the attitude of the case law, this doctrine was ascribed to the ratification of the Convention and to the enactment in 1992 of Israel's Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty. In this article, I argue that the recognition of children as rights bearers is not new and that signs of it are evident in the Court's case law dating back to the early years of Israel's existence. The development of the case law, however, has not been linear. In this article, I analyze the spiral progression of this process and suggest explanations for the particular course that Israeli case law has taken with regard to the recognition of children's rights.