Global Challenges
In the spring of 2025, Studium Generale will host several Global Challenges lectures at Leiden University College The Hague. We begin on December 10, 2024, International Human Rights Day, with a panel discussion about children's rights in conflict zones, focusing on the right to education during and after war.
Children's Rights Under Fire: The Right to Education During and After War
Dr. Hanne Cuyckens, Prof.dr. Ton Liefaard, PhD candidate Lucy Ataro Opoka, Prof.dr. Ann Skelton, and Prof. Jonathan Todres (J.D.). See below for more information about the panellists.
How do international laws protect children during armed conflicts, and how can education help rebuild societies after war? On 10 December, International Human Rights Day, and 100 years after the 1924 Geneva Declaration of the Rights of the Child, join us for a panel discussion exploring these urgent questions.
The panellists will discuss how international humanitarian law and human rights law intersect in defending children, the challenges the protection of children still faces in practice, and the role of education in promoting peace and rebuilding societies. Drawing on their research and work on the impacts of conflict on children in different areas of the world, they will also discuss the Committee on the Rights of the Child’s perspective on how the relevant conflict actors (fail to) uphold children's rights in these contexts.
Visiting Professor Jonathan Todres will reflect on the panel discussion, drawing on his research into how children's developmental stages shape the implementation of children’s rights as well as his research on human rights education. He will highlight how international law can better safeguard children’s rights and help foster rights-respecting communities that ensure children’s wellbeing.
Join us this International Human Rights Day as we explore ways to safeguard children's rights in the face of ongoing global conflicts.
Speakers
Panellists:
- Dr. Hanne Cuyckens, Assistant Professor and Educational Director at Leiden University College The Hague, expert in international law with a primary focus on international humanitarian law.
- Lucy Ataro Opoka, PhD candidate in Children’s Rights (focused on Children’s Effective Participation in Peacebuilding Processes), Leiden University
- Prof.dr. Ann Skelton, Professor of Law at Leiden University, where she holds the Chair in Children's Rights in a Sustainable World. She is also currently a member of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, and was appointed Chairperson in May 2023, for a two-year term.
Moderator: Prof.dr. Ton Liefaard, Full Professor of Children’s Rights and Head of the Department of Child Law and Health Law at Leiden University. He has held the UNICEF Chair in Children’s Rights at Leiden University since 2012.
Guest speaker: Prof. Jonathan Todres (J.D.), Distinguished University Professor and the Catherine C. Henson Professor of Law at Georgia State University College of Law in the United States. Professor Todres holds the Rotating Honorary Chair in Enforcement of Children’s Rights for the academic year 2024/2025 at the Department of Child Law and Health Law of Leiden Law School.
Time, Place, and Signing Up
10 December 17:00 - 18:30
LUC Auditorium, room 02.21
Anna van Buerenplein 301
2595 DG Den Haag
Please note that registration is required for visitors without a Leiden University student or staff card. Please register here.