Chapter 11 - Conclusions

Summary

‘I believe that as young people, innocent to the situation we have been put into, it is our thoughts, our wishes, and our feelings that are most important, and first priority in our family cases. What happens at the court affects our lives dramatically, and we can do very little than explain how we feel and hope that this is taken into consideration when a final judgement is taking place.’

– Laura, 15 years old

Introduction

In the past few decades, child participation has developed at a significant rate. Children’s right to step out of the silence and use their voice to express their views has, since the introduction of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), found its way into multiple European human rights instruments and the case law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). Increasingly society has accepted the Dr Seuss saying ‘a person’s a person, no matter how small!’ Children’s rights have made their way to the centre stage and European states have actively pursued the ratification of children’s rights instruments concerning child participation. The increased attention for the child’s right to participate in family law proceedings has led to the proliferation of instruments addressing this right.

In this volume, the widening and thickening of the child’s right to participate has been addressed. The aim has been to study the standards of child participation in family law proceedings applicable to European states and to determine how the framework can be aligned and strengthened. Through legal doctrinal work in Part I, the UNCRC, the European Convention on the Exercise of Children’s Rights (ECECR), the Guidelines on Child-Friendly Justice (GCFJ), the 2012 Recommendation on the participation of children (Recommendation) and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (CFREU) were analysed and in Part II, by means of the innovative method of qualitative content analysis (QCA), the case law of the ECtHR has been meticulously studied.