On the occasion of the launch of the Council of Europe’s new children’s rights strategy 2016-2021, the Republic of Bulgaria hosted a high-level conference in Sofia on the 5th and 6th of April, 2016.

From 1-2 December 2022, the Frontex fundamental rights team met for a Workshop to reflect on their role and discuss current issues. Melanie Fink, Assistant Professor of European Law, was invited to contribute to the discussion with insights from her research on Frontex’s obligations and responsibili…

Houben and Ten Oever investigate the relationship between public service obligations in EU law (PSOs) and human rights. PSOs served mainly as a correction to free market forces and did not originate from a human rights perspective.

On Wednesday 12 December 2018, the department of Child Law, on the initiative of dr. Yannick van den Brink, dr. Stephanie Rap en prof. dr. Ton Liefaard), organized an expert meeting on ‘Equality, children’s rights and digital technologies’. The objective of the meeting was an in-depth exchange of ideas…

The book 'The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child' is the result of the international academic conference – ’25 Years CRC’ – which was held in November 2014 in Leiden on the occasion of the 25th birthday of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

In what way is constructivist logic able to account for both the role of the judging agent in inference and the universal claims of logical validity?

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Knowing how to resolve global problems is one thing, but how do you make sure that it actually happens? That’s the real challenge, because there are powerful movements everywhere that want to reconstruct the walls of nation states. In an attempt to resolve this issue, Leiden researchers are experimenting…

Learn about the Institute’s mission, structure and academic community within Leiden University’s Faculty of Humanities.

On 30 October 2017, the current class of students of the advanced LL.M. programme International Children’s Rights visited the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

We are pleased to invite abstracts for a conference on ‘Advancing Social, Economic, and Cultural Rights in a Polarised, Digitalised, and Unequal World’ to be held at Leiden University on 4 and 5 September 2025, in collaboration with Netherlands Network for Human Rights Researh (NNHRR).

On 13 May 2025, Melanie Fink presented her latest research on the role of the duty to reason and other explanation rights to safeguard human dignity in the automated state at the AI & Law Summer School hosted by the University of Tübingen.

The procedures for admitting minor asylum seekers from Camp Moria on Lesbos to the Netherlands are in breach of children’s rights according to Ton Liefaard, Professor of Children’s Rights and Peter Rodrigues, Professor of Immigration Law.

Darinka Piqani visited the Law Faculty of the University of Tirana (Albania) on 16-20 January 2023 and lectured on the transparency and the right to information in EU law. These lectures were held in the context of the Research Expertise from the Academic Diaspora (READ) Fellowship that Dr Piqani holds…

Research on 45 years of legal and economic data for 132 countries by international team shows the addition of one right for LGB people is associated with over $2000 in GDP per capita

Mark Klaassen presenter at the Reuniting Families: From Access to Integration event organized by the EU office of the Red Cross in Brussels.

Mozambican politician and child rights activist Graça Machel speaks October 27 at Leiden University about her work.

It often takes longer for women with heart problems to get the right diagnosis. In her Annie Romein-Verschoor Lecture, Professor Hester den Ruijter will talk about how hormones influence the heart and the importance of medical research that focuses specifically on women.

On Wednesday 11 October 2017 the African Studies Centre Leiden and the Van Vollenhoven Institute for Law, Governance and Society are organizing a workshop.

New research report and policy brief by Carolien Jacobs (VVI) and Bernardo Almeida (VVI)

On 28 and 29 January 2020 the workshop ‘Law, Rights, and Governance in Africa. A look to the Future’ was held at Leiden Law School.

The Child Law Department of Leiden University and Defence for Children kindly invites you to the fourth Jaap Doek Children’s Rights Thesis Award Ceremony and the official launch of the book ‘The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Taking Stock after 25 Years and Looking Ahead’ (Brill…

A new report on admissibility under the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) on a Communications Procedure (OP3) has been published.

On 25 October 2017, the current class of students of the advanced LL.M. programme International Children’s Rights visited juvenile detention center ‘De Hunnerberg’ in Nijmegen (the Netherlands).

On Tuesday 4 March, Marie-Cécile Rouillon, Coordinator on the Rights of the Child at the European Commission came to give a guest lecture to students of the Advanced LLM in Children’s Rights as well as the Jeugdrecht master’s programme.

Leiden's city centre, bathed in autumn sunshine and teeming with visitors. On 14 October, several thousands of students and their parents came to visit the University's Open Day. We spoke to a number of students at the information fair in the Pieterskerk; each of them had their own questions, doubts…

22 September 2017 the second biannual conference took place organised by IAAEU of the University of Trier and the Hugo Sinzheimer Institute of Frankfurt. The theme of the conference was the European Pillar of Social Rights. Under the heading of the conference’s title, International Labour Law as a stimulus…

To what extent does the Law Ombudsperson for Children achieve its goals as intended by the legislator when introducing the law?

From Monday 7 to Friday 11 June 2021, the fourth (virtual) edition of The Children’s Rights Moot Court Competition takes place.

The Social Domain Platform organized a regional meeting on homelessness on September 30 at the Pauluskerk in Rotterdam. At the invitation of Valente, the trade association for organizations that provide support to vulnerable people in our society, Martijn van den Brink was invited to speak about the…

According to a study conducted by multiple research institutes, governments and law enforcements should widen the scope of their focus to right-winged terrorists such as Andres Breivik. The Guardian issued an in-depth analysis of their work last week.

On Thursday 8 June 2017 Melanie Fink, Postdoctoral Researcher at the Europa Institute, participated in the Legal Seminar ‘EU Law and Undocumented Migrants: Defending Rights in the Context of Detention & Deportation’.

On Tuesday 26 November 2019, a collaboration between The Hague University of Applied Sciences (THUAS) and Leiden University was launched in relation to the journal International Labor Rights Case Law (ILaRC).

The staff of the Master of Laws: Advanced Studies in International Children’s Rights is extremely proud.

Canadian Roméo Dallaire (1946) was UN Commander in Rwanda at the time of the genocide there, subsequently becoming a champion of human rights. He has worked as a researcher at several different universities, and was a senator in Canada for nine years. Dallaire will give this year's Cleveringa lecture…

Professor Paul van der Heijden (International Labour Law) has been awarded a grant of 50,000 euros by the city council of The Hague to start building a Business & Human Rights database.

AI programmes such as Suno and Udio allow the user to compose songs that bear an uncanny resemblance to the style and vocals of famous artists. Can artists do anything about this?

In what ways do matters of cybersecurity affect the relationship between governments and citizens, have a bearing on (fundamental) rights and civil liberties, and alter the role and responsibilities of governments?

Peter Rodrigues, Professor of Immigration Law, has been appointed as a deputy member of the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights for a period of eighteen months.

The trend of legal recognition for gay and lesbian couples is broadening. More and more rights are becoming available to same-sex partners – in more and more European countries. Leiden Law School and the French Institute for Demographic Studies publish detailed database and comparative analysis.

On Friday afternoon, 15 November 2024, the conference Corporate Responsibility: Current Issues in the Field of Fundamental Rights & Sustainability will take place.

This paper examines the need and possibility for developing online resilience-based approaches in response to COVID-19 vaccine conspiracies, often linked to the far right.

Political Scientist Gisela Hirschmann (Leiden University) asks how international organisations can be compelled to comply with respect human rights. She finds that this is done through ‘pluralist accountability’: external third parties such as courts, NGOs, or regional organisations holding international…

Organised jointly by the Europa Institute, Leiden University and the Lisbon Centre for Research in Public Law, University of Lisbon on 31 May 2021.

Darinka Piqani and Moritz Jesse, both from the Europa Institute Leiden, were invited as speakers at the Centre for Constitutionalism and Human Rights, established at the Faculty of Law of Charles University, Prague.

On 10 December Walter Burkard won the Jaap Doek Children’s Rights Thesis Award 2020 for his thesis on climate change and children’s rights. The prize for the best master’s thesis in the field of children’s rights is awarded every year by Defence for Children and the Department of Child Law of Leiden…

This Autumn a group of young asylum seekers will attend the course ‘Know Your Rights’, which is being developed by Pro Bono Connect, New Dutch Connections, law firm DLA Piper and the Leiden Law Clinic. For this course we are looking for 20 jurists who are willing to coach the asylum seekers.

In Dutch newspaper NRC, Pieter Omtzigt says he finds it 'unconstitutional' that he has no right to vote in committee meetings. Omtzigt believes he is as much a Member of Parliament as other MPs. However, since 2017, a breakaway group is no longer entitled to a proportional share of staff support and…

This special issue focuses on emerging trends in the implementation of the WPS agenda. In reviewing the resolution 20 years since the passing of Resolution 1325, Newby and O'Malley have highlighted the gaps in implementation.