David and Goliath: Due Weight, the State and Determining Unaccompanied Children’s Fate



Stalford, HE ORCID: 0000-0002-9782-7738
(2018) David and Goliath: Due Weight, the State and Determining Unaccompanied Children’s Fate. Journal of Immigration, Asylum & Nationality Law., 32 (3). pp. 258-283.

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Abstract

*J.I.A.N.L. 258 This article provides the first detailed, critical attempt to consider children's status and experiences of immigration proceedings from the perspective of the right to participation, as enshrined in art 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989. The analysis adopts unaccompanied asylum-seeking children as a case study for interrogating how children's right to be heard - a key feature of the legal and policy framework at international, European and domestic level - plays out in asylum proceedings in the UK. Specifically, it explores how easily participatory opportunities are distorted and exploited by adult decision-makers who are operating under a rather more hostile agenda of exclusion and expulsion. Ultimately, the analysis points to the need for a reappraisal of what compliance with art 12 UNCRC actually means in practice and a more steadfast resistance to so-called participatory practices that potentially undermine children's welfare and sabotage their claims for asylum.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Asylum seekers, Children's rights, Children's welfare, Credibility, Right to be heard, Unaccompanied minors, Vulnerable and intimidated witnesses
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 29 Jun 2018 09:25
Last Modified: 19 Jan 2023 01:31
Related URLs:
URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3023144