Sonja C. Grover Knihy

Focusing on the legal obligations of states towards child refugee asylum seekers, this book examines the interplay of refugee law, human rights law, and humanitarian law. It analyzes how these obligations are applied across different jurisdictions through significant case studies, highlighting the challenges faced by refugee children, such as refoulement and pushback strategies. The author argues for the necessity of ensuring that child refugees are protected under the law, emphasizing the importance of upholding human dignity and rights within the framework of international law.

Focusing on the legal complexities surrounding torture, this book delves into the foundations for legally defining acts of torture, especially in cases involving children as victims. It explores the intricacies of legal frameworks and the challenges in categorizing specific actions as torture, highlighting the unique vulnerabilities of children in these contexts.

Focusing on age-based persecution of children, this book presents a groundbreaking perspective within international criminal law, framing such acts as crimes against humanity. It explores how children can be targeted as a collective or as individuals, considering the intersections of age with other identity factors like gender, ethnicity, and religion. By linking this persecution to established offenses under various international statutes, the work aims to enhance understanding and legal accountability for these atrocities.

The book examines controversial decisions made by the European Court of Human Rights, emphasizing the importance of the Court's moral integrity in upholding human rights. It argues that these rulings play a crucial role in advancing the internationalization of the rule of law, highlighting the delicate balance between legal authority and ethical considerations in the protection of human rights.

Focusing on the societal implications of voting age requirements, this comprehensive overview examines the legislative barriers to youth voting in North America and Commonwealth nations. It presents the youth vote as a critical human rights issue, highlighting the need for reform and the impact of disenfranchisement on young people's participation in democracy.

Judicial activism is presented as a crucial component of democratic governance, particularly in safeguarding human rights and due process. By analyzing recent case law from the US, Canada, and the European Court of Human Rights, the author demonstrates how courts have sometimes acted to protect the marginalized, while at other times have used legalistic maneuvers to avoid their responsibilities. This exploration is aimed at legal professionals, scholars, and students interested in the dynamics of judicial decision-making and its impact on democracy.

This book provides an original legal analysis of child soldiers recruited into armed groups or forces committing mass atrocities and/or genocide as the victims of the genocidal forcible transfer of children. Legal argument is made regarding the lack of criminal culpability of such child soldier 'recruits' for conflict-related international crimes and the inapplicability of currently recommended judicial and non-judicial accountability mechanisms in such cases. The book challenges various anthropological accounts of child soldiers' alleged 'tactical agency' to resist committing atrocity as members of armed groups or forces committing mass atrocity and/or genocide. Also provided are original interpretations of relevant international law including an interpretation of the Rome Statute age-based exclusion from prosecution of persons who were under 18 at the time of perpetrating the crime as substantive law setting an international standard for the humane treatment of child soldiers.

Introductory Remarks on the Perspective and Intent of the Author in Writing This Monograph The European Court of Human Rights comments in the judgment Korbely v. Hungary that: However, clearly drafted a legal provision may be, in any system of law, including criminal law, there is an inevitable element of judicial interpretation. There will always be a need for elucidation of doubtful points and for adaptation to changing circumstances. Indeed, in the Convention States, the progressive development of the criminal law through judicial law making is a well-entrenched and necessary part of legal tradition…The Court’s role is con? ned to ascertaining whether the effects of such an interpretation [interpretation by the national courts and authorities of domestic law which sometimes may refer to or incor- rate international law principles or agreements] are compatible with the Convention 1 [European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms] (emphasis added). This book then examines to what degree this “inevitable element of judicial interpretation” has been applied by the European Court of Human Rights in a manner consistent with the guarantees of the most fundamental human rights under international criminal, human rights and humanitarian law.

This book considers the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a communication procedure as a key contributor to the realization of children’s Article 12 Convention on the Rights of the Child participation rights. Weaknesses in the current formulation of the CRC communication procedure (its first iteration since entry into force 14 April, 2014) are examined and suggestions for strengthening of the mechanism in various respects considered. Actual cases concerning children’s fundamental human rights in various domains and brought under various international human rights mechanisms are considered as hypothetical OP3-CRC communications/complaints. In addition certain domestic cases brought to the highest State Court are considered as hypothetical OP3-CRC communications brought after exhaustion of domestic remedies. In this way various significant weaknesses of the OP3-CRC are illustrated in a compelling meaningful case context and needed amendments highlighted.

This book examines selected legal complexities of the notion of torture and the issue of the proper foundation for legally characterizing certain acts as torture, especially when children are the targeted victims of torture. ICC case law is used to highlight the International Criminal Court's reluctance in practice to prosecute as a separable offense the crime of torture as set out in one or more of the relevant provisions of the Rome Statute where children are the particularized targets as part of a common plan during armed conflict.