Course dates
Free enrolment
Enrollment is Closed
Children's Rights in the EU Charter
The fundamental rights of children as guaranteed by the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights is one of the topics that cuts across legal disciplines giving rise to a broad range of issues. This course aims at providing an overview of these problems.
The course takes learners across the general presentation of the varieties of contexts where children’s rights emerge. In doing so, it builds on the guiding principle of the best interest of the child both in the EU and international context. Learners will subsequently explore how rights of the child are shaped in the context of provisions ruling EU citizens and third country citizens in the context of asylum in migration. Finally, children’s rights will be presented within the area of the judicial cooperation in civil matters.
This is the third of five e-learning courses offered within the ambit of the e-NACT project, this time delivered by the University of Florence.
Course Outline
Week 1: Children Protection in the EU and the Role of the Charter: An Introduction
During the first week of the course the general framework of children’s rights protection will be presented. Spotlight will be placed on children’s rights as guaranteed by the Charter of Fundamental Rights and by public international law. Here the general principle of the best interests of the child is introduced and explained.
Week 2: Children Protection in the Context of EU Citizenship, Free Movement Law and Family Reunification
The second week of the course is dedicated to freedom of movement of persons within the European Union and, in particular, to the protection afforded to children and their parents on the basis of the citizenship law.
Week 3: Child Protection in the Context of Migration and Asylum Law
To contrast the EU citizenship experience, in Week 3 learners will explore the migration and asylum context and the manner in which the EU law protects children seeking entry and stay in the European Union.
Week 4: Protecting Third Country Nationals Who Are Unaccompanied Minors. Legal Gaps and Challenges
Special attention will be paid during Week 4 to the case of unaccompanied minors and legal challenges emerging in this context.
Week 5: Children Protection in the Context of Judicial Cooperation in Civil Matters
Finally, during Week 5 you will explore the guarantees of children’s rights protection in the context of the judicial cooperation in civil matters featuring mutual trust and mutual recognition and enforcement of judgements, predominantly in the area of family law.
Lecturers and Experts
The e-NACT courses feature a group of academics, judges, and other practitioners passionate for fundamental rights and willing to spread the knowledge about them both within their professional networks and beyond. As the courses build on the trans-national trainings conducted within the e-NACT project, we invited also experts that delivered these residential training to enrichen the online courses with their perspectives and experience.
Learning Outcomes
Having completed this course, the learners will have obtained the general knowledge of the principles behind children’s rights protection in the European Union. They will have appreciated the problems arising from the all-encompassing nature of the children’s rights’ protection as embedded across the variety of provisions of the EU Charter.
The overall Project
e-learning National Active Charter Training(e-NACT) Project is a DG Justice supported project providing for a training methodology and training activities that, coupled with the expertise of the trainers involved, foster the emergence and consolidation of a common culture of fundamental rights. By discussing with academics and with foreign colleagues their difficulties or good practices with respect to the application of the EU Charter, legal practitioners will deepen their understanding and equip themselves with new instruments and notions to use it effectively.For this purpose, e-NACT will offer systematic, interdisciplinary, interconnected and combined residential and e-learning training on five fundamental rights guaranteed in the EU Charter.
The following courses are offered within this project:
- Crash course on the application of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (1 week)
- Freedom of expression (5 weeks)
- Fundamental Social rights in the European Union (5 weeks)
- Children’s rights in the EU Charter (5 weeks)
- La protection des droits des enfants dans le cadre de la Charte des droits fondamentaux de l'Union européenne (5 semaines)
- The European Charter of Fundamental Rights and Data Protection in the European legal framework (5 weeks)
- Asylum and Immigration Detention: The Protection of Fundamental Rights in the European Union (5 weeks)
Share on
Claire Bright
Max Weber Research Fellow at the European University Institute
She is currently Max Weber Research Fellow at the European University Institute and a Research Fellow in Business and Human Rights at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law.
She holds a PhD in International Law from the European University Institute, an LL.M in Private International Law and International Commercial Law from La Sorbonne Law School and a Double Bachelor in French and English Laws from the University Paris-Est. Claire is currently working on a study for the European Commission on human rights due diligence in supply chains.
Ornella Feraci
Assistant Professor of International Law at the University of Siena
Ornella Feraci is Assistant Professor of International Law at the University of Siena. In 2018, she obtained the qualification as Associate Professor of International Law.
She received her Ph.D. in International and EU Law from the University of Florence. She has been Research Fellow of International Law and EU Law at the University of Florence and Siena and Adjunct Professor of EU Private International Law and Immigration Law at the LUMSA University in Rome. She is author of a book and of several scientific publications in the fields of conflict-of-laws and EU Law. She is also a qualified attorney admitted to the Italian Bar.
Nicole Lazzerini
Assistant Professor of European Union Law at the University of Florence
She is Assistant Professor of European Union Law at the University of Florence, where she is also responsible for the team working on the e-NACT Project.
She holds a LLM and Ph.D. in European Union Law from the European University Institute and a Degree in Law from the University of Florence. Her research interests include the protection of fundamental rights in the EU, the rule of law crisis, judicial dialogue between national courts and the Court of Justice, law and technology, business and human rights.
Sara Migliorini
Research Fellow at the University of Lausanne
She is a Research Fellow at the University of Lausanne and at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law (London).
She obtained a Ph.D. from the European University Institute (EUI), an LLM in Private International Law from the University of Paris 1, Panthéon-Sorbonne, and a double degree in Italian and French law from the Universities of Paris 1, Panthéon-Sorbonne and Florence. Her current research focuses on the EU Area of Freedom, Security and Justice, especially civil and criminal judicial cooperation.
Claudia Pretto
Lecturer in Comparative Legal Studies
She is Lecturer in Comparative Legal Studies and Senior Legal Consultant on human rights, migration Law, refugee law, educational law and anti-discrimination law.
Claudia obtained her PhD in Constitutional Comparative Law, Faculty of Law, University of Bari, in May 2011. From 2011 to 2016, she worked as UNHCR Consultant and Protection Associate, UNHCR Italy, Protection Unit. Presently, Claudia is Appointed Lecturer in Migration Law at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the LUMSA University of Rome.
Cesare Pitea
Associate Professor of International Law at the Università degli Studi di Milano
He is Associate Professor of International Law at the Università degli Studi di Milano. His research focuses on human rights and environmental protection.
He has worked as lawyer at the Registry of the European Court of Human Rights, from 2009 to 2011. Admitted to the Bar of Milan since 2009, he has been subsequently involved as counsel in a number of strategic cases before the Court, especially in the field of gender discrimination, LGTBI rights and migrants’ rights. He holds a PhD in International Law from the University of Milan (2004) and an LLM in Public International Law from the University of London – School of Oriental and African Studies (2001).
Eleanor Spaventa
Full Professor of European Union Law at the Bocconi University of Milan
She is Full Professor of European Union Law, currently at the Bocconi University of Milan and previously at the University of Durham, where she was also the Director of the Durham European Law Institute (2006-2011; and 2016-17).
She holds a PhD in European Law from Oxford University, an LL.M in European Law from the University of Cambridge, and a Law Degree from the ‘La Sapienza’ University of Rome. Her main research interests lie in European Union Law and in particular in the fields of European constitutional law, free movement, fundamental rights, EU citizenship, Brexit and cooperation in criminal matters in the EU. She is the author or co-authors of several publications, including leading textbooks of European Union law, and of reports commissioned by the European Parliament PETI committee and by the European Commission. Her work has been quoted by several Advocates General in front of the European Court of Justice.
Daniela Vitiello
Assistant Professor of European Union Law at Tuscia University of Viterbo
She is Assistant Professor of European Union Law at Tuscia University of Viterbo and Lecturer on European Cultural Heritage Legislation at the University of Florence.
From 2015 to 2017, Daniela was Visiting Fellow at the University of Bern (Spring Term 2017) and Postdoctoral Research Fellow at “Roma Tre” University. She studied at LUISS University, Durham University and The Hague Academy of International Law, before obtaining her PhD from Sapienza University of Rome, defending a thesis on the prohibitions on refoulement in contemporary international law (2014).