3rd Children’s Rights Research Symposium

October 2015

University of Antwerp

Description:

The symposium is focused on methodology given the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of research being undertaken on children’s rights and the complex methodological questions researchers face in this interdisciplinary environment. The focus is on three themes:

Interdisciplinarity:

- Is interdisciplinarity a sine qua non of children’s rights research? Should it be?

- Can children’s rights research be undertaken without interdisciplinary dialogue?

- How is ‘interdisciplinarity’ to be defined in the context of children’s rights research?

Participatory research:

- What does participatory research mean?

- What is the threshold for participatory research involving children?

- What are the ethical issues and how can they be resolved?

Research on specific children’s rights concepts:

- What do these ‘special’ children’s rights concepts mean for our research?

- How do they shape the normative discourse in children’s rights research?

- Are the notions of participation, best interests, responsibility and agency essentially legal notions?

Personal Notes:

The peculiarity of this 3rd symposium was the fact that the first panel session was plenary, but the second and third panel session were held simultaneously, and the participants thus had to choose between attending one or the other.

At the end there was a short closing session, an ‘open discussion’, where we were invited to share our our thoughts and comments. The theme of the session became ‘legal researchers struggling with integrating research methods from other disciplines’, i.e. a very legal approach.

Programme:

14 OCTOBER 2015

12:30 – Registration

12:50 – Welcome by Professor Wouter Vandenhole (University of Antwerp)

13:00 – 14:30 - Keynote Conversation on the proposal for an interdisciplinary “Children’s Rights Studies” field by Professor Karl Hanson (University of Geneva)

Respondents: Professor Laura Lundy (Queen’s University Belfast)

15:00 – 15:30 - Health break

(PhD researchers will have the opportunity to set up their posters for the poster session.)

15:30 – 17:30 - Working Session I: Interdisciplinarity

17:30 – 18:30 - Reception and Poster Session

19:30 – Dinner for PhD Researchers

15 OCTOBER 2015

08:30 – 10:30 - Working Session IIa: Participatory Research Involving Children

08:30 – 10:30 - Working Session IIb: Working Session IIb: Research on specific children's rights concepts (Best Interests and Participation)

10:30 – 11:00 - Health Break

11:00 – 13:00 - Working Session III: Research on specific children's rights concepts (Agency)

13:00 – 14:00 – Lunch

Link to the event: https://www.uantwerpen.be/en/conferences/childrens-rights-research-symposium/