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ABSTRACT
Refugee children are often neither recognised as rights holders nor as active agents in asylum procedures. A one-sided view of these children as vulnerable objects is not in coherence with international children's rights, including the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which regards all children as autonomous subjects and full bearers of rights. Through 21 in-depth interviews with unaccompanied, separated, and accompanied children in the Netherlands, their perceptions and experiences are collected and analysed in relation to their right to be informed and to participate in asylum application proceedings. It is shown that children possess little information on the asylum application interview, which they perceive as particularly stressful. However, they display agency in the choices they make during the interview. Accompanied children find themselves in a rather difficult position, feeling jointly responsible for the outcome of the procedure. It is concluded that effective and meaningful participation, in line with the international children's rights framework, is difficult to realise in the context of asylum proceedings.

IntroductionThe UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) accords children the right to give their views on all important decisions in their life (art.12 CRC). In the past decades increased awareness has risen among professionals who work with children in judicial and administrative proceedings, to hear their voices. The key question guiding this research was whether refugee children have the possibility to meaningfully participate in asylum proceedings, as required by international children's rights law and standards? Asylum application procedures are highly complex administrative procedures, that are often not adapted to the capacities and level of maturity of children. Recent studies suggest that the right to participation and information is insufficiently safeguarded for children involved in asylum procedures. Unaccompanied children seeking asylum as young as 6 years of age have to go through the asylum procedure in the Netherlands. Efforts have been put in making this procedure more child-friendly, by designing a child-friendly interview room and training immigration officers. The aim of this study was to explore to what extent the immigration authority takes into account children's voice, age and development, in line with international children's rights.MethodsObservations have been conducted of first instance asylum application interviews with children held by immigration officers. In total 13 interviews with children aged 7–11 have been observed, that were held between 2012 and 2019.ResultsThe results show that child-friendly conversation techniques and tools are used to some extent, however, immigration officers should be trained more extensively in order to enhance the effective participation of young children.DiscussionIt is concluded that interviews with children could be improved by giving children more information and using techniques to communicate with young children. In order to truly hear the child's voice the interviews should be better adapted to the age and level of development of unaccompanied children.

The Effective Youth Court is specifically made for professionals and academics working in the field of juvenile justice to inform them about a new interdisciplinary perspective. The book explores the way juvenile defendants are involved in the courtroom. The leading idea of the book is that a combination of two perspectives is required to be able to react legally, correctly, and adequately to youth delinquency. Knowledge of the legal framework that has been developed in past decades in the area of human rights, particularly the procedural rights of the child, has to be enriched with social sci

This book aims to provide insight in the state of children in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the implementation of children's rights as laid down in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and developments in this regard over the years. The book provides a source of information for further scientific research, development of policies and legislation and societal and political debate. The first part of the publication presents a general picture of the most important developments and trends in children's rights implementation in the Netherlands, through an overview of statistics, law reform and policymaking, also in the context of significant international developments. The second part offers an in-depth study of a relevant, topical and/or emerging children's rights theme. The book starts with an editorial commentary in which the different parts are connected and overall reflections are given. The book aims to contribute to the education and (post-academic) training of students and professionals from the Netherlands and abroad

In this article a critical reflection upon age limits applied in the law is provided, in light of the tension that exists in international children's rights law between the protection of children and the recognition of their evolving autonomy. The main research question that will be addressed is to what extent the use of (certain) age limits is justified under international children's rights law. The complexity of applying open norms and theoretically underdeveloped concepts as laid down in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, related to the development and evolving capacities of children as rights holders, will be demonstrated. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child struggles to provide comprehensive guidance to states regarding the manner in which the dynamic legal position of children should be applied in practice. The inconsistent application of age limits that govern the involvement of children in judicial procedures provides states leeway in granting children autonomy, potentially leading to the establishment of age limits based on inappropriate – practically, politically or ideologically motivated – grounds.

Millions of children are on the move worldwide. Children are fleeing conflicts and wars. They move with or without their parents to attain a better future. Children on the move is not a new phenomenon, but its scale is without precedent. UN reports suggests that there are almost 50 million children who have migrated or who have been forcibly displaced. It is also reported that children form half the global refugee population and that many flee from violence, conflict and insecurity. Children who are migrants or refugees often find themselves in a particular vulnerable position, despite rather strong entitlements to human rights protection, as laid down in international and regional legal instruments including the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted 30 years ago. This book presents a collection of scientific papers presented at the conference 'Safeguarding Children's Rights in Immigration Law', organised by the Institute of Immigration Law and the Department of Child Law of Leiden Law School, at Leiden University in November 2018. It reflects the growing concern for children and children's rights in immigration in academia and practice. It also shows the diversity of issues related to immigration and children, including family reunification, detention, participation, human trafficking and the rights of siblings in the context of migration, as well as the significance of regional legal systems and infrastructures for the protection of children on the move. The book targets at academics, legal and other professionals and (advanced) students