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Books by Ellen Desmet

Die Keure, 2020

In 2016 werd in de schoot van de Verenigde Naties besloten om een Global Compact for Safe, Orderl... more In 2016 werd in de schoot van de Verenigde Naties besloten om een Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration te ontwikkelen. Het resultaat van dat werk zou een symbool worden van de tegenstellingen die het thema 'migratie' wereldwijd oproept. Het Compact, in België bekend als het Migratiepact, was ook in ons land politiek een heet hangijzer. Er zou uiteindelijk een regering over vallen.

Het Migratiepact heeft bovendien tal van vragen rond migratierecht, internationaal recht en grondwettelijk recht losgemaakt. Sommige daarvan waren eigen aan de crisis, andere waren alleszins nog niet afdoende beantwoord. In dit boek nemen deskundigen de opeenvolgende fases van de crisis onder de loep en gaan ze op zoek naar antwoorden.

with Jinske Verhellen and Steven Bouckaert, 2019

Veel kinderen migreren zonder hun ouders naar België. Dit boek zoekt constructief mee naar een ad... more Veel kinderen migreren zonder hun ouders naar België. Dit boek zoekt constructief mee naar een adequate bescherming van de rechten van deze kinderen; een regelgevend kader dat ‘niet-begeleide minderjarige vreemdelingen’ (NBMV) op de eerste plaats als kinderen beschouwt.

Vertrekkend vanuit het kind of de jongere zelf, kijkt het boek naar boven met de vraag: ‘welke juridische regels zijn op hem of haar van toepassing, of zouden dit moeten zijn?’' Het boek schetst een globaal beeld van de rechten van niet-begeleide minderjarige vreemdelingen in België, door het samenbrengen van verschillende rechtsdomeinen (asielrecht, migratierecht, familierecht, jeugdrecht, onderwijsrecht). De hoofdinsteek van het boek is juridisch, maar ook andere disciplinaire perspectieven komen aan bod, zoals de pedagogie, het sociaal werk en de tolkwetenschap.

Het boek is zowel theoretisch als praktisch georiënteerd. De auteurs zijn afkomstig uit de academische wereld én uit verschillende overheidsdiensten, de magistratuur, de advocatuur en het middenveld. Hierdoor biedt het boek een diepgaand inzicht in de manier waarop rechtsregels worden toegepast alsook een kritische analyse van knelpunten en uitdagingen. De lezer zal er ook concrete voorstellen en aanbevelingen in vinden.

Dit samenbrengen van verschillende perspectieven is een unicum. Of, om het met de woorden van een reviewer te zeggen: “Dit wordt een standaardwerk in de Nederlandstalige juridische literatuur rond niet-begeleide minderjarige vreemdelingen.”

with Gert Vermeulen, 2019

The range of issues covered is comprehensive: human rights; nationality and statelessness; equal treatment, non-discrimination, racism and xenophobia; citizenship, residence and free movement; borders, border management and entry; visa and passenger data; labour migration; family reunification; asylum, subsidiary and temporary protection; irregular migration; and trafficking in human beings.

The texts have been ordered according to the multilateral co-operation level within which they were drawn up: either the United Nations, the Council of Europe or the European Union (including Schengen-level instruments).

This edition provides practitioners, authorities, policy makers, scholars and students throughout Europe with an accurate, up-to-date and forward-looking compilation of essential texts on asylum and migration matters.

All texts have been updated until 20 December 2018.

with Giselle Corradi, Koen De Feyter and Katrijn Vanhees

The field of ‘critical indigenous rights studies’ is a complex one that benefits from an interdis... more The field of ‘critical indigenous rights studies’ is a complex one that benefits from an interdisciplinary perspective and a realist (as opposed to an idealised) approach to indigenous peoples. This book draws on sociology of law, anthropology, political sciences and legal sciences in order to address emerging issues in the study of indigenous rights and identify directions for future research.

The first part of the volume investigates how changing identities and cultures impact rights protection, analysing how policies on development and land, and processes such as migration, interrelate with the mobilisation of identities and the realisation of rights. In the second part, new approaches related to indigenous peoples’ rights are scrutinised as to their potential and relevance. They include addressing legal tensions from an indigenous peoples’ rights perspective, creating space for counter-narratives on international law and designing new instruments.

Throughout the text, case studies with wide geographical scope are presented, ranging from Latin America (the book’s focus) to Egypt, Rwanda and Scandinavia.

with Gert Vermeulen, 2017

This volume comprises the relevant legal instruments and principal policy documents in the area o... more This volume comprises the relevant legal instruments and principal policy documents in the area of international and European asylum and migration, including the latest versions of pending legislative proposals. The range of issues covered is comprehensive: human rights; nationality and statelessness; equal treatment, non-discrimination, racism and xenophobia; citizenship, residence and free movement; borders, border management and entry; visa and passenger data; labour migration; family reunification; asylum, subsidiary and temporary protection; irregular migration; and trafficking in human beings.
The texts have been ordered according to the multilateral co-operation level within which they were drawn up: either the United Nations, the Council of Europe or the European Union (including Schengen-level instruments).
This edition provides practitioners, authorities, policy makers, scholars and students throughout Europe with an accurate, up-to-date and forward-looking compilation of essential texts on asylum and migration matters.

with Eva Brems This book aims to introduce concrete and innovative proposals for a holistic appr... more with Eva Brems

This book aims to introduce concrete and innovative proposals for a holistic approach to supranational human rights justice through a hands-on legal exercise: the rewriting of decisions of supranational human rights monitoring bodies. The contributing scholars have thus redrafted crucial passages of landmark human rights judgments and decisions, ‘as if human rights law were really one’, borrowing or taking inspiration from developments and interpretations throughout the whole multi-layered human rights protection system. In addition to the rewriting exercise, the contributors have outlined the methodology and/or theoretical framework that guided their approaches and explain how human rights monitoring bodies may adopt an integrated approach to human rights law.

Eva Brems, Ellen Desmet and Wouter Vandenhole (eds) Children’s rights law is often studied and p... more Eva Brems, Ellen Desmet and Wouter Vandenhole (eds)

Children’s rights law is often studied and perceived in isolation from the broader field of human rights law. This volume explores the inter-relationship between children’s rights law and more general human rights law in order to see whether elements from each could successfully inform the other. Children’s rights law has a number of distinctive characteristics, such as the emphasis on the ‘best interests of the child’, the use of general principles, and the inclusion of ‘third parties’ (e.g. parents and other care-takers) in treaty provisions. The first part of this book questions whether these features could be a source of inspiration for general human rights law. In part two, the reverse question is asked: could children’s rights law draw inspiration from developments in other branches of human rights law that focus on other specific categories of rights holders, such as women, persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples, or older persons? Finally, the interaction between children’s rights law and human rights law – and the potential for their isolation, inspiration or integration – may be coloured or determined by the thematic issue under consideration. Therefore the third part of the book studies the interplay between children’s rights law and human rights law in the context of specific topics: intra-family relations, LGBTQI marginalization, migration, media, the environment and transnational human rights obligations.

The exponential growth of China’s megacities has attracted an increasing number of internal migra... more The exponential growth of China’s megacities has attracted an increasing number of internal migrants since the mid-1980s. This creates problems regarding access to quality education for the children of these rural-urban migrant households in the cities, since access to education is determined by one’s household registration (hukou). This book presents the results of a socio-legal research on the right to education of children of rural-urban migrant workers in Chongqing. It unravels the intricacies at play in accessing and enjoying compulsory education and assesses the relevance of invoking human rights language in that context.

Since the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) children’s rights have ... more Since the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) children’s rights have assumed a central position in a wide variety of disciplines and policies. This handbook offers an engaging overview of the contemporary research landscape for those people involved in the theory and practice of children’s rights.

The volume offers a multidisciplinary approach to children’s rights to children’s rights, as well as key thematic issues in children’s rights at the intersection of global and local concerns. The main approaches and topics within the volume are:

- Law, social work, the sociology of childhood and anthropology
- Geography, childhood studies, gender studies and citizenship studies
- Participation, education and health
- Juvenile justice and alternative care
- Violence against children and female genital mutilation
- Child labour, working children and child poverty
- Migration, indigenous children and resource exploitation

The specially commissioned chapters have been written by renowned scholars and researchers and come together to provide a critical and invaluable guide to the challenges and dilemmas currently facing children’s rights.

Una mayor conciencia pública sobre la creciente pérdida de biodiversidad ha motivado iniciativas ... more Una mayor conciencia pública sobre la creciente pérdida de biodiversidad ha motivado iniciativas para lograr esfuerzos de conservación más efectivos. La mayoría de las áreas ricas en biodiversidad son habitadas o utilizadas por pueblos indígenas o comunidades locales. En los últimos años, emergió un nuevo paradigma de «conservación que respeta los derechos de los pueblos indígenas y las comunidades locales». ¿Qué significa este cambio político en términos del sistema internacional de protección de los derechos humanos? ¿Cómo se implementó este nuevo esquema a nivel nacional en el Perú y local en la Zona Reservada de Güeppí del Alto Putumayo?

"Heightened public awareness of the ever increasing loss of biodiversity has led to louder calls ... more "Heightened public awareness of the ever increasing loss of biodiversity has led to louder calls for effective nature conservation efforts. Most remaining biodiversity-rich areas are inhabited or used by indigenous peoples and local communities. In recent years a new ‘paradigm’ of ‘nature conservation with respect for the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities’ has emerged. Two questions arise: What exactly does this policy shift mean in terms of international human rights law? And how has this new paradigm been translated and applied at the national and local level?

This study investigates how nature conservation initiatives interact with the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities from a human rights and legal anthropological perspective. The book is distinctive in that it provides a comprehensive review of international human rights law in the context of nature conservation; a critical appraisal of Peruvian nature conservation legislation in relation to the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities; and a thorough analysis of the interaction between three levels of regulation: the international level of human rights, the national level of Peru, and the local level of a specific protected area (the Güeppí Reserved Zone). It is based on extensive field work.

This volume will be of interest to both academics and practitioners who are working in the fields of nature conservation, human rights or indigenous peoples’ rights."

Papers by Ellen Desmet

Bringing together scholars of migration and constitutional law, this volume analyses the problema... more Bringing together scholars of migration and constitutional law, this volume analyses the problematic relationship between the rise of populism, restrictions of migrants' rights and democratic decay in Europe. By offering both constructive and critical accounts, it creates a nuanced debate on the possibilities for and limitations of legal resilience against populist erosion of migrants' rights. Crucially, it does not merely diagnose the causes of restrictions of migrants' rights, but also proposes how the law might be used as a solution. In this volume, the law is considered as both a source of resilience and part of the problem at three distinct levels: the legal-theoretical, the European, and the national level. It is a major contribution to the literature on migrants' rights, offering a nuanced account of how legal resilience might be used to safeguard migrants' rights against further erosion in populist times. This book is available as Open Access.
Bringing together scholars of migration and constitutional law, this volume analyses the problematic relationship between the rise of populism, restrictions of migrants' rights and democratic decay in Europe. By offering both constructive and critical accounts, it creates a nuanced debate on the possibilities for and limitations of legal resilience against populist erosion of migrants' rights. Crucially, it does not merely diagnose the causes of restrictions of migrants' rights, but also proposes how the law might be used as a solution. In this volume, the law is considered as both a source of resilience and part of the problem at three distinct levels: the legal-theoretical, the European, and the national level. It is a major contribution to the literature on migrants' rights, offering a nuanced account of how legal resilience might be used to safeguard migrants' rights against further erosion in populist times. This book is available as Open Access.
https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/migrants-rights-populism-and-legal-resilience-in-europe/C0E1A7A7C0DD59D933E320D1A6465184

2 Zie verder de tijdslijn in de inleiding van dit boek. 3 De N-VA stapte uit de regering. De part... more 2 Zie verder de tijdslijn in de inleiding van dit boek. 3 De N-VA stapte uit de regering. De partij lanceerde ook een campagne met zes stellingen die haar verzet tegen het Migratiepact uitlegden. Na hevige kritiek op de beelden die hierbij gebruikt werden, werd deze offline gehaald.

in Eva Brems, Pieter Cannoot en Liesbet Stevens (eds), Recht en gender in België: 10 jaar later, die Keure , 451-485, 2021

The International Journal of Children s Rights 28(1):36-65, 2020

This article presents a tentative analysis of 30 years of academic research in the field of child... more This article presents a tentative analysis of 30 years of academic research in the field of children’s rights and migration (1989–2019). Much research has addressed the plight of unaccompanied, refugee and asylum-seeking children, trying better to link children’s rights considerations with international refugee law. Many publications address the best interests of the child principle and the right to be heard. Most research focuses on (migration towards) Europe. This has led to an increased visibility and recognition of children’s rights in the context of migration. However, there are still various blind spots in the research reviewed. Most research focuses on some children, but not all (e.g., accompanied children), on some rights, but not all (e.g., economic, social and cultural rights), and on some types of migration, but not all (e.g., economic migration). Moreover, refugee and migrant children tend to be studied as a group, which risks reducing attention for their internal diversity.

Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, 2019

Borders follow migrants even inside the territory of their State of destination. These ‘sticky’ f... more Borders follow migrants even inside the territory of their State of destination. These ‘sticky’ figurative borders may flow directly from immigration norms and practice or indirectly from other areas of law. This Special Issue focuses on the gendered nature of these borders, as they rely on/reinforce socially constructed norms of masculinity and femininity. As a result, these figurative borders undermine the equal enjoyment of human rights of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers along gender lines. Specifically, gendered borders are analysed in relation to the themes of asylum, domestic labour and gender-based violence. The human rights of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in these domains are analysed in an integrated and complex fashion. The analysis demonstrates that migrants, refugees and asylum seekers navigate and challenge not only sticky figurative borders, but also borders between different areas of law. The (non)interaction between these different areas of law may equally create or reinforce unequal human rights protection along gender lines. The law, across different areas and through the workings of diverse categories, definitions and standards, may thus work as a border-reinforcer.

Samenleving & Politiek, 2019

2019 lijkt een beslissend jaar te worden voor humanitaire visa. In België wordt de procedure krit... more 2019 lijkt een beslissend jaar te worden voor humanitaire visa.
In België wordt de procedure kritisch onder de loep genomen,
het Europees Hof voor de Rechten van de Mens zal zich uitspreken
over één van de twee zaken die in 2016 de media beheersten, en
binnen de Europese Unie circuleert een voorstel voor een ‘Europees
humanitair visum’.

in Sylvie Saroléa (ed.), Statut familial de l'enfant et migrations, Louvain-La-Neuve, 185-218.

Dit artikel analyseert de arresten van de Raad voor Vreemdelingenbetwistingen uit het volle recht... more Dit artikel analyseert de arresten van de Raad voor Vreemdelingenbetwistingen uit het volle rechtsmachtcontentieux van 2016, waarin minderjarigen betrokken zijn als verzoeker of kind van verzoeker. De volle rechtsmachtprocedure betreft beroepen aangetekend tegen beslissingen van het Commissariaat-Generaal voor Vluchtelingen en Staatlozen (CGVS), inzake de erkenning als vluchteling en de toekenning van de subsidiaire beschermingsstatus. Na een uiteenzetting van de methodologie, komen de resultaten van een kwantitatieve analyse aan bod, die het aandeel van verschillende types beslissingen (bevestiging, hervorming, vernietiging) bekijkt in verhouding tot verschillende variabelen. Daarna volgt een kwalitatieve analyse, die onderzoekt hoe de Raad het beginsel van het hoger belang van het kind juridisch benadert, en welke verwachtingen hij stelt ten aanzien van minderjarigen. Deze sectie begint met een kort overzicht van de juridische verankering van het beginsel van het hoger belang van het kind, met bijzondere aandacht voor de interpretatie hiervan door het Comité voor de Rechten van het Kind van de Verenigde Naties.

Die Keure, 2020

with Jinske Verhellen and Steven Bouckaert, 2019

with Gert Vermeulen, 2019

All texts have been updated until 20 December 2018.

with Giselle Corradi, Koen De Feyter and Katrijn Vanhees

Throughout the text, case studies with wide geographical scope are presented, ranging from Latin America (the book’s focus) to Egypt, Rwanda and Scandinavia.

with Gert Vermeulen, 2017

with Eva Brems This book aims to introduce concrete and innovative proposals for a holistic appr... more with Eva Brems

Eva Brems, Ellen Desmet and Wouter Vandenhole (eds) Children’s rights law is often studied and p... more Eva Brems, Ellen Desmet and Wouter Vandenhole (eds)

This volume will be of interest to both academics and practitioners who are working in the fields of nature conservation, human rights or indigenous peoples’ rights."

in Eva Brems, Pieter Cannoot en Liesbet Stevens (eds), Recht en gender in België: 10 jaar later, die Keure , 451-485, 2021

The International Journal of Children s Rights 28(1):36-65, 2020

Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, 2019

Samenleving & Politiek, 2019

in Sylvie Saroléa (ed.), Statut familial de l'enfant et migrations, Louvain-La-Neuve, 185-218.

in Eva Brems and Saïla Ouald-Chaib (eds), Fragmentation and Integration in Human Rights Law: Users’ Perspectives, Edward Elgar Publishing, 12-38., 2018

Human Rights Law Users' Perspectives, Edward Elgar Publishing. however, legal scholars have incre... more Human Rights Law Users' Perspectives, Edward Elgar Publishing. however, legal scholars have increasingly engaged with methodology. 4 Also within human rights research, attention for methodological questions has been growing. 5

There are some remarkable parallels in how international human rights law and scholarship have be... more There are some remarkable parallels in how international human rights law and scholarship have been addressing the claims and rights of indigenous peoples and children. This chapter suggests that indigenous peoples' rights law could inspire children's rights law in three domains: the demarcation of its personal scope, the development of the right to be heard of children as a group, and the conceptualisation of children's right to give consent. A challenge common to both fields of indigenous peoples' rights and children's rights law and research concerns addressing romanticised constructions and, in particular, their detrimental consequences.

in Tine Destrooper & Sally Engle Merry (eds), Human Rights Transformation in Practice, University... more in Tine Destrooper & Sally Engle Merry (eds), Human Rights Transformation in Practice, University of Pennsylvania Press, 183-207

in Eva Brems & Ellen Desmet, Integrated human rights in practice. Rewriting human rights decisions, Edward Elgar Publishing, 445-504., 2017

This chapter analyses some features of the relationship between legal pluralism and international... more This chapter analyses some features of the relationship between legal pluralism and international human rights law, first at a conceptual level, then in the concrete case of indigenous land, territorial and resource rights.

in G. Corradi, E. Brems & M. Goodale (eds), Human Rights Encounter Legal Pluralism: Normative and Empirical Approaches, Hart Publishing, 41-54.

De administratieve detentie van migranten – zowel kinderen als volwassenen – is een praktijk die ... more De administratieve detentie van migranten – zowel kinderen als volwassenen – is een praktijk die vanuit mensenrechtenperspectief veel vragen oproept. In twee recente arresten spreekt het Europees Hof voor de Rechten van de Mens (EHRM) zich hierover opnieuw uit. Waar het Hof in A.B. e.a. t. Frankrijk zijn rechtspraak inzake bewaring van begeleide minderjarige vreemdelingen wat verstrengt, blijft de uitspraak in Thimothawes t. België, inzake de vrijheidsberoving van een volwassen asielzoeker, onder de standaard die in andere Europese en internationale mensenrechtennormen is vastgelegd. Zo bevat het EU-recht, zowel in de (herschikte) Opvangrichtlijn als in de Terugkeerrichtlijn, strengere normen inzake immigratiedetentie van volwassen migranten. Wat de immigratiedetentie van kinderen betreft, is er echter een verontrustende evolutie merkbaar binnen het EU-beleid. Recente verklaringen lijken de deur weer meer open te zetten voor immigratiedetentie van minderjarigen, onder het mom van een ‘krachtdadig terugkeerbeleid’.

in Tijdschrift voor Jeugdrecht en Kinderrechten, 2017, vol. 18, no. 2, 79-83.

One way of improving natural resource regimes would be through a more careful and consistent iden... more One way of improving natural resource regimes would be through a more careful and consistent identification of rights-holders, with more explicit attention for the relationship between the rights of indigenous peoples and other local non-indigenous communities. This argument is illustrated with a critical analysis of the protected areas legislation in Peru, focusing on the right to consultation prior to the establishment of a protected area, and the rights to use and sustainably manage natural resources within protected areas. On the basis of both international human rights law and empirical data, it is suggested that limiting subsistence-related rights in protected areas to indigenous peoples could endanger the enjoyment of the right to food of the local non-indigenous population. Moreover, the extension of certain human rights that are currently only or mostly granted to indigenous peoples to the broader local population affected by a protected area, should be considered.

This paper reviews and reflects upon the literature in which children’s rights and legal pluralis... more This paper reviews and reflects upon the literature in which children’s rights and legal
pluralism stand at the core. This scholarship has mainly addressed three research
questions: how global children’s rights standards interrelate with local normative
orders and practices; how children as well as justice providers navigate legally plural
orders; and how legal pluralism interplays with social change and the realisation of
children’s rights. As regards research topics, intra-family relations have received more
scholarly attention than the position of children in the wider society. Even though,
often implicitly, a variety of theoretical approaches may be discerned, particularly
regarding the conceptualisation of children’s rights (e.g. as semi-autonomous or static)
and legal pluralism (e.g. as dichotomous or multi-level). In the conceptualisation of
children and childhood, a social constructionist approach is predominant. On this
basis, we formulate a number of suggestions for future research. It is concluded that
further developing the subfield of children’s rights and legal pluralism is worthwhile,
not only because of the specificity of the knowledge needed, but also because this may
deepen our understanding of the interplay between legal pluralism and human rights
more generally.

This thematic section entitled ‘children and young people in legally plural worlds’ builds on a p... more This thematic section entitled ‘children and young people in legally plural worlds’ builds on a panel that was organized by the guest editors during the 2013 conference of the Commission on Legal Pluralism in Manchester. The panel was conceived as an opportunity to bring together theoretical and empirical contributions reflecting on under-researched issues concerning the relationship between children, children’s rights and legal pluralism.

This article develops a research approach which can be summarised as ‘analysing users’ trajectori... more This article develops a research approach which can be summarised as ‘analysing users’ trajectories in human rights’. The key element of this approach, adopting a users’ perspective on human rights, implies a shift in analytical focus. Instead of analysing a specific legal instrument, topic or enforcement mechanism, one puts oneself in the shoes of those who engage with (use) human rights. The article explores the implications of adopting such a users’ perspective on human rights and introduces and reflects upon a categorisation of human rights uses and users. It proposes a broad understanding of human rights users, including rights claimants (who invoke human rights), rights realisers (who give effect to human rights), supportive users (who support the realisation of human rights) and judicial users (who impose the implementation of human rights), and argues that a possible way of adopting a users’ perspective is through analysing the ‘trajectories’ of users in relation to human rights.

This chapter explores the relevance of children’s rights (law) in the context of natural resource... more This chapter explores the relevance of children’s rights (law) in the context of natural resource exploitation, with focus on Latin America. After an introduction on resource exploitation policies, the experiences of children and young people in relation to natural resource industries in Latin America are discussed. Thereinafter, legal developments are analysed, with particular attention for business-related standards, the Inter-American human rights jurisprudence and the approach of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. Resource exploitation is an area in which the current legal conceptualization of children’s and human rights runs up against its limits. Moreover, two fields of tension are identified. First, although child-specific initiatives have their merits, adequately addressing extraction-related challenges requires a more general approach. Second, integrating findings from other disciplines in legal analysis may work both empowering and disempowering, depending on how insights are used. The chapter ends with three future-oriented reflections: the need for effective remedies and domestic change; the importance of understanding children’s rights in a holistic, intercultural and context-specific way; and the suggestion to shift focus in future research towards a more inclusive engagement with natural resources, including conservation and sustainable use, rather than (only) exploitation.

In Flanders, a child and youth impact report (JoKER) must accompany all legislative proposals bas... more In Flanders, a child and youth impact report (JoKER) must accompany all legislative proposals based on an initiative of the Flemish Government, that have a direct impact on the interests of persons under the age of 25. This article presents the results of the first in-depth evaluation carried out of this impact assessment instrument. Based on multiple data collection techniques (including an electronic survey and focus groups), JoKER was critically evaluated as to its scope, quality, process, support and control, effectiveness and impact. The evaluation required maintaining a balance between various perspectives and tensions. A major challenge concerns the tension between mainstreaming JoKER in the more general regulatory impact assessment (RIA), on the one hand, and preserving the specificity of a youth and children’s rights perspective, on the other.

This chapter analyses two strands of case law of the Council for Alien Law Litigation (CALL or Co... more This chapter analyses two strands of case law of the Council for Alien Law Litigation (CALL or Council) in Belgium from the perspective of children’s rights and the need to ensure unity of jurisprudence. On the one hand, it looks into appeals against decisions of the Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons (CGRS) denying a minor or his/her parent(s) the refugee and/or subsidiary protection status, in which the CALL undertakes a full judicial review. On the other, it scrutinizes appeals against return orders delivered by the Immigration Office in the context of the durable solution procedure to the guardian of an unaccompanied minor (UNAM), for which the CALL only has an annulment competence.