The UiT research group on Child Law were the hosts of the conference.
Great keynote speeches were given by Professor Ton Liefaard, Leiden, Professor Ursula Kilkelly, Cork, Professor Jonathan Herring, Oxford, Professor Laura Lundy, Belfast and Professor Daniel Stoecklin, Geneva. Other participants from different parts of Europe, in addition to members from our own research group, gave great presentations as well, and everyone participated in interesting and important discussions. In the evenings we were able to explore and enjoy both fjords and mountains, and even the midnight sun joined us.The main purpose of the research group is to strengthen research cooperation in children's rights and to create a good environment for the development of research projects. In addition, the aim is to strengthen the participants' own research competence. The research group has organized several international events, most recently a spring 2018 workshop on Children's Constitutional Rights in the Nordic Countries. The project resulted in an edited volume, the book can be read here!
The research group for Child Law has played a major role in the development of specialization and disciplinary strength of this research area, both nationally and in a Nordic context. A newly started research project within the group (2019) is ‘Children’s Right to Health’, financed by the RCN, within a cost frame of NOK 16 million. At its core, the project concerns the development of child rights theory and includes a new dimension on child law through the combination of health law and child law, which is challenging because the two legal domains are built upon two different paradigms.
The research group's members work on a variety of topics in the field of children's law. Included are: topics regarding the relationship between children and parents, child welfare law (especially issues of cohabitation and adoption), procedural questions (especially about mediation in family conflicts), coercive measures, health law issues concerning children and children's human rights, and the principle of the best interests of the child for foreign children in matters of stay on humanitarian grounds and on deportation.
The research also includes ongoing cases before the European Court of Human Rights on Norwegian child welfare.
The members of the group participate in International, Nordic and national research-networks.
Students writing master's thesis on children's rights are welcome to contact the group.
We refer to our Norwegian-language websites for a list of publications associated with the research group