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ERA Seminar on ‘Recent ECtHR Case Law in Family Matters’ – Strasbourg 13-14 February 2020
On 13-14 February 2020, ERA (Academy of European Law) will host a Seminar in Strasbourg to present the major judgments related to family matters issued by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in 2019. The focus of the presentations will be mainly on:
- Children in European migration law
- Parental rights, pre-adoption foster care and adoption
- Parental child abduction
- Reproductive rights and surrogacy
- LGBTQI rights and gender identity
The Seminar, organised by Dr Angelika Fuchs, will provide participants with a detailed understanding of this recent jurisprudence. The focus will be placed, in particular, on Article 8 ECHR (respect for private and family life) and the analysis of the case law of the ECtHR will tackle the legal implications but it will also extend to social, emotional and biological factors.
The opening speech will be given by Ksenija Turkovi?, Judge at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
More information on the event and on registration is available here.
This event is organised with the support of the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union
Conclusions & Recommendations of the International Seminar on the Protection of Children on the Move and Kafala are available
The Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH) has posted the Conclusions & Recommendations of the “International Seminar on the Protection of Children Across Borders: The 1996 HCCH Convention on the Protection of Children” that took place in Rabat, Morocco, in mid-November 2019.
The seminar focused on discussing ways to improve the protection of children across borders in West Africa, in North Africa and in Europe. Two topics of particular interest were discussed: kafala and unaccompanied and separated children.
With regard to the institution of kafala, the participants “welcomed the opportunity to share information and experiences concerning crossborder kafala cases; in particular, the participants noted that, in States where it is unknown under domestic law, kafala may be recognised or, at the very least and depending on the circumstances, its effects would correspond to the delegation of parental responsibility, guardianship or curatorship, in order to ensure its legal effectiveness across borders. Participants also recognised that kafala and adoption are two very different concepts” (C&R No 9).
The HCCH Child Protection Convention makes explicit reference to the institution of Kafala in Articles 3(e) and 33. Paragraph 3.27 of the Practical Handbook on the Operation of the 1996 Child Protection Convention explains what is understood by Kafala: “The institution of kafala is widely used in some States as a form of care for children when they cannot be cared for by their parents. Under kafala, children are cared for by new families or relatives but the legal link with their birth parents is generally not severed. Kafala can take place across borders but since it is an arrangement which does not constitute an adoption it is not within the scope of the 1993 Hague Intercountry Adoption Convention. However, where used, the institution of kafala clearly constitutes a measure of protection in respect of a child and is therefore expressly within the scope of the 1996 Convention.”
With regard to the protection of unaccompanied and separated children, the participants “recognised the need to implement the “Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children” resulting from Resolution 64/142 adopted by the United Nations General Assembly” (C&R No 11).
The Permanent Bureau of the Hague Conference is also working on this topic. In fact, in 2018 the governance body of the Hague Conference mandated to prioritise work on the finalisation of the revisions to a preliminary document relating to the application of the 1996 HCCH Child Protection Convention to unaccompanied and separated children (referred to as Preliminary Document No 7 of the Seventh Meeting of the Special Commission of 2017 on the 1980 and 1996 Conventions). To the best of my knowledge, this document has not yet been released.
Currently only two African States are States parties to the HCCH Child Protection Convention: Lesotho and Morocco. Only Morocco was present at the seminar probably due to its geographic scope.
The HCCH news items is available here.
The UN Conventions on the rights of the child: an Italian book to celebrate its 30th anniversary
The Italian Independent Authority for Children and Adolescents (Autorità garante per l’infanzia e l’adolescenza) has just published a book to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Child (CRC).
The book, in Italian, is titled La Convenzione delle Nazioni Unite sui diritti dell’infanzia e dell’adolescenza: conquiste e prospettive a 30 anni dall’adozione (“The 30th Anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child: Achievements and Perspectives”). It consists of chapters dealing with a range of issues surrounding the Convention.
Some of the chapters discuss the relevance of the Convention to the rules of private international law regarding children.
Christophe Bernasconi and Philippe Lortie, respectively Secretary General and First Secretary of the Hague Conference on Private International Law, analysed the impact of the CRC on the work of the Hague Conference in the field of child protection.
Olivia Lopes Pegna, of the University of Florence, wrote a chapter on the techniques used by private international law rules to realise the best interests of the child.
Ornella Feraci, of the University of Siena, assessed in her chapter the relevance of the CRC on the recognition in the Italian legal order of a child’s personal or family status lawfully acquired abroad.
Laura Carpaneto, of the University of Genova, examined against the background of the CRC the rules on child abduction.
Ester di Napoli discussed the synergies between migration law and private international law, in particular as regards the protection of unaccompanied minors.
The book can be downloaded here for free. The English abstracts of each chapter, kindly provided by Ester di Napoli, are available here.