Children affected by armed conflict in the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights

 The lecture will, after briefly presenting the Court’s mandate and activities relevant for ensuring the rights of children affected by armed conflict, through individual applications, inter-state cases and potential requests for advisory opinions, focus on concrete examples of the Court’s engagement with the topic. Given the vulnerabilities of children in the context of armed conflicts, it will address the Court’s approach to the concept of vulnerability, discuss negative and positive obligations of States to ensure rights of children, interpreting them in the light of other applicable rules and principles of international law, in particular international humanitarian law, and address the possibilities of rehabilitation under the European Convention on Human Rights. It will particularly focus on the analysis of relevant parts of the landmark Grand Chamber Judgment in Ukraine and the Netherlands v. Russia. It will also highlight the possibilities of third-party interventions before the Court and the possibilities for the Court’s dialogue with international courts or other bodies working in the sphere of protecting children affected by armed conflicts.

Moderator: Dr Karolina Aksamitowska 

Speaker: Prof. dr. Vasilka Sancin, Judge of the European Court of Human Rights

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