Beyond employment: reshaping reconciliation policies through a children's rights perspective in the EU legal order. (R-11768)

The proposed PhD research focuses on the potential of inserting a children's rights perspective into leave policies to care for children in the EU (and Belgium). Neither EU law, nor the CJEU's case law reflect much of a children's rights orientation. It considers whether the EU has competence to legislate in favour of children and if so, how to best achieve the best interests of the child principle and ensure equality for all children. The research wants to bridge an important gap which lies at the intersection between labour/social security law and children's rights law. It wishes to offer a coherent legal framework on child care related leaves that takes into account not only parental rights but also children's needs and interests. In addition to ensuring the child's best interests, including a children's rights perspective may be an alternative way to approach parenthood in more gender neutral terms, so as to make it difficult to justify measures on the basis of the sex of parents, rather than on the best interests of the child.

Keywords:Children’s rights, Human Rights

Disciplines:Comparative law, European law, Family law, Labour law, Social law