Criteria for Assessing the Best Interests of the Child in Proceedings for the Protection of Childrens Rights (original) (raw)

The Child’s Best Interest Principle across Child Protection Jurisdictions

The results are publishes in a chapter of the book “Human Rights in Child Protection”, edited by Asgeir Falch-Eriksen and Elisabeth Backe-Hansen. The findings reveal significant differences between countries with regard to the interpretation of the principle of the child’s best interest, the strength of the principle compared with other principles, and the degree of discretionary power vested in decision-makers. The authors argue that the findings indicates that what is deemed important for children’s interests across child protection systems differs hugely, and as such the right of the child in many jurisdictions has a long way to go. The child best interest principle appears oftentimes as a right that is open to wide discretionary interpretation.

Child's best interest in child protection legislation of 44 jurisdictions

Centre for Research on Discretion and Paternalism, 2022

The Centre addresses core themes in the social sciences by examining the government's use of power toward its citizens and the justifications of state interventions into people's lives. Important areas of empirical focus are child welfare and children's rights. Research at the Centre is comparative between nations, systems and individuals. The Centre is interdisciplinary, with researchers from across the world and from many disciplines-including political science, sociology, law, philosophy, psychology and social work. We use multilevel data sources in our approach, including interviews with experts, laws and regulations, and court judgements. We apply multiple research methods, including interviews, observation, text analysis, survey vignettes and survey experiments. The Centre works to communicate research-based knowledge about child welfare, children's rights, the welfare state, discretion and state power. Our researchers regularly participate as lecturers and frequent appearances in the media. News and research results are also published on our websites, Twitter and in our monthly newsletter. We also host and co-organize guest lectures, seminars and conferences. For more information, visit our webpage: http://www.discretion.uib.no This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement no. 724460). Publications from the project reflects only the authors' views and the funding agency is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.