Roberta Ruggiero

Dr. Roberta Ruggiero, PhD is the Director of the Children’s Rights Academy. She is also the Academic Coordinator of the Children’s Rights European Academic Network (CREAN) at the University of Geneva’s Centre for Children’s Rights Studies (CCRS). Since 2014, she is also the co-director of the University of Geneva’s Summer School Children at the Heart of Human Rights. Formerly she was the scientific coordinator of the European Network of National Observatories on Childhood (ChildONEurope), Istituto degli Innocenti (2008-2013), Florence, Senior Lecturer at the University of Padua, and External Professor of children’s rights at the University of Molise, Italy. 

Dr. Ruggiero holds a PhD in Children’s Rights Promotion and Protection awarded by the University of Molise, an MA in law from the University of Molise, an MA in human rights and democratization from the European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratization (EIUC), Venice, Italy, and a Certificate on Public Policy Analysis from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), United Kingdom.

Begüm Simsek

Kübra Begüm Simsek serves as the Program Officer of the Children’s Rights European Academic Network (CREAN). She brings a strong academic and professional background in children’s rights, informed by experience across international organisations, academia, and legal practice. Formerly, she worked as a Project Officer within the Council of Europe’s Children’s Rights Division and as a lawyer in criminal law cases concerning children.

Alongside her role at CREAN, Begüm is pursuing her doctoral research in law and serves as a teaching and research assistant at the Centre for Children’s Rights Studies, University of Geneva.

Begüm holds an Advanced Master’s Degree in International Children’s Rights Law from Leiden University (Netherlands), a Master’s in Public Law from Istanbul University (Türkiye), a Bachelor of Laws from Galatasaray University (Türkiye), and a Certificate in Transnational Law from the University of Geneva (Switzerland).

The Steering Committee

Karl Hanson

Karl Hanson, who obtained his doctorate in Law from Ghent University, Belgium, is Professor in Public Law at the University of Geneva in Switzerland and the Deputy Director of the Centre for Children’s Rights Studies. His teaching and research activities are in the interdisciplinary field of children’s rights studies. He is an editor of the journal Childhood. Hanson is the chair of the Children’s Rights European Academic Network.

Natália Fernandes

Natália Fernandes is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Education, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal, since 1994. She is a researcher at the Research Centre on Child Studies and her research interests have to be with children’s rights; research with children and ethics in the research with children. She is a Founding Member and Member of the directive Committee of the European Network of Masters in Children’s Rights (ENMCR) now CREAN.

Kay Tisdall

Kay Tisdall is Professor of Childhood Policy at the University of Edinburgh. She is part of Childhood and Youth Studies at Moray House School of Education and Sport. Her policy, academic and teaching work centres around childhood studies and children’s human rights. She has a legal and social sciences background, with an AB in Social Studies from Harvard University, a PhD in Social Policy from the University of Edinburgh and a LLB from the University of Strathclyde. She undertakes collaborative research with children, young people and adults on such as areas as children affected by domestic abuse, inclusive pedagogy for young children, young people’s mental health, and children’s activism. Recent and current partnership projects are with teams in countries ranging from Brazil, Canada, Eswatini, India, Palestine, and South Africa, funded by such organisations as the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the European Commission, Global Challenges Research Fund, and UK Research and Innovations.

Ton Liefaard

Prof. Dr. Ton Liefaard holds the UNICEF Chair in Children’s Rights at Leiden University, Leiden Law School. He is the programme director of the Master Programme (LL.M) Advanced Studies in International Children's Rights. He also coordinates the Leiden Summer School on International Children's Rights qnd has received the award for best lecturer of Leiden Law School in 2015.Ton Liefaard is a honorary juvenile judge at the District Court of Amsterdam and was a member of the Government Committee on the Reassessment of Parenthood (Staatscommissie Herijking Ouderschap) advising the Dutch Government on changing parental relationships and the position of children. He was appointed as a member of the Council for the Administration of Criminal Justice and Protection of Juveniles on the 1st of October 2016. He regularly works as a consultant for international organizations, including agencies of the United Nations, the Council of Europe and the European Union, on issues related to children’s rights, juvenile justice, child friendly justice, child protection, alternative care and violence against children.

The General Assembly

The General Assembly is composed of all members of the network and is responsible for the overall strategic planning and the election of Steering Committee members.

General Assembly meetings are in principle scheduled every two years and take place during the biennial CREAN Conferences.

• Go to the Members page for a list of all members