This pioneering book explores the child’s right to identity, and the concept of selfhood, in both domestic and cross-border contexts. It highlights life events and transformations that children and young people often experience in the field of international family law and related areas which may impact on their identity, and considers the legal protections available to them. The book analyses the psychological and sociocultural factors that contribute to identity formation and discusses how this can sometimes be damaged or disrupted by significant life experiences and adversities. How the law can be used to best protect children at risk of interrupted or maladjusted identity development is also addressed.
Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, the book begins with contributions examining the formation of childhood identity, analysing psychological and cultural perspectives on development. These provide insight into how the child’s right to preservation of their identity is currently interpreted and applied under Article 8 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and how this is interpreted and applied in international and domestic legal settings. The book highlights the likely consequences of conflict, discrimination and oppression on children and young people, revealing how the associated events and transitions, as well as those emanating from more positive foundations, often influence the evolution and integration of their identities over time. To conclude, the book suggests a range of improvements to help ensure that children’s right to identity is more frequently taken into account in the international family justice field, ultimately improving the decisions being made about vulnerable children and young people.
Children’s Right to Identity, Selfhood and International Family Law is designed for students, academics, and all professionals and practitioners in family and human rights law. Its focus on practical methodologies makes it an essential read for lawyers, judges, mediators, social workers, counsellors, NGOs and child/family support organisations. It will also be of keen interest to families where children and young people have experienced, or are experiencing, identity-impacting changes to their lives.
Contents
Foreword xv
Mia Dambach
PART I INTRODUCTION
1 Unveiling the connection between child identity and family law 2
Marilyn Freeman and Nicola Taylor
PART II IDENTITY: WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT MATTERS
2 Article 8 UNCRC: to protect or neglect? Consideration of its
(potential) meaning and effect 24
Soraya Bou-Sfia
3 Identity: a psychological perspective 44
Astrid Martalas
4 Cultural identity: ‘Ko au te awa, ko te awa ko au – I am the
river and the river is me’ 62
Trudy Ake and Sarah Calvert
5 Discovering our donor conception as adults: a sisters’
selfhood dialogue 75
Fiona Darroch and Kathleen Pithouse-Morgan
PART III IDENTITY: INTERNATIONAL FAMILY LAW CONTEXTS
6 International adoption and cross-border placement of children 86
Laura Carpaneto and Ester di Napoli
7 Surrogacy and identity: moving beyond genetics? 110
Michael Wells-Greco
Relocation and international child abduction: the impact on
children’s identity 128
Nicola Taylor and Marilyn Freeman
9 Care and protection of children: identity formation for
children in out-of-home care 150
Amy Conley Wright and Judy Cashmore
10 Violence and the child’s sense of identity 169
Mariëlle Bruning
11 Forced marriages, child brides and forced religious
conversions of women and girls 191
Sulema Jahangir and Carolina Marín Pedreño
12 The child’s right to gender identity 211
Claire Fenton-Glynn
13 Children’s rights and the justice system: exploring the
meaning and application of the right to identity 229
Ursula Kilkelly
14 Unaccompanied migrant children, including trafficked
children and asylum seekers 243
Ronaldah Lerato Karabo Ozah and Fortunate Seneka Mongwai
15 Children, identity and the impacts of parental deportation: a
famigration perspective 266
Nazia Yaqub and Helen Stalford
16 The (self)identity of the child soldier: international law and
best practices 284
Mark Drumbl
PART IV CONCLUSION AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS
17 The evolving scope of international transformations of children 302
John Tobin
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