Children’s rights and citizenship and well-being (School of Law, Education, Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice)


This cluster explores children’s rights as these relate to their everyday lives across a range of social, cultural and institutional contexts.  Drawing on national and international human rights laws, norms and standards, including domestic legislation, the Irish Constitution, the European Convention on Human Rights, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, research in this cluster focuses on aspects of provision, protection and participation with respect to children and young people in the areas of immigration, asylum and the socio-economic rights of the child. This cluster also explores how children’s rights are supported (or not) through their experiences of the education, social care/protection, and within legal systems in Ireland and internationally.  An additional focus of this work is children’s social citizenship, and the impact of rights discourse on limiting differentiation on the basis of citizenship within societies.  The extent to which and how children are valued (in the legal and social sense) and heard and engaged as rights bearing persons in Irish society, is also considered.