This edited collection critiques, from an interdisciplinary perspective, the growing body of EU children's rights activities in the light of broader global political, economic and legal processes. It scrutinises the compatibility of EU children's rights measures with the principles and provisions enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The broad focus of the book is twofold: on the one hand, it aims to explore how EU actions in children's rights have an impact on the global protection of children's rights and, on the other hand, to scrutinise how international and global processes shape EU policies on children's rights. The collection scrutinises the effectiveness and impact of the EU's role in advancing children's rights (in terms of norms, laws, policy measures) from inter-disciplinary perspectives by drawing on conceptual tools and analytical frameworks from political science, law, childhood studies and sociology. From the Contents: * Children's rights, EU enlargement policy and economic crisis * The EU and Child Protection Systems: the role and added value of the EU in advancing children's protection rights * Cross-border cooperation and child victim protection * The role of Civil Society in supporting the EU children's rights agenda * Achieving child participation at EU level The Editors: Prof Helen Stalford, Founding director of the European Children's Rights Unit (ECRU), Professor at the School of Law & Social Justice, University of Liverpool, UK Ingi Iusmen, PhD, Research Fellow at the Department of Politics, University of Sheffield, UK

This book critically examines how and why Eastern enlargement has impacted on EU human rights policy. By drawing on the EU's intervention in human rights provision in Romania before 2007, it is demonstrated that the feedback effects of this intervention have led to the emergence of an EU child rights policy. Eastern enlargement has also raised the profile of Roma protection, international adoptions and mental health at the EU level. The impact of these developments has been further reinforced by the constitutional and legal provisions included in the Lisbon Treaty. It is argued that Eastern enlargement has led to the emergence of a more robust and well-defined EU human rights regime in terms of its scope and institutional clout. This book makes a substantial contribution to the scholarship on EU enlargement, Europeanisation and EU human rights policy by providing empirical evidence for the emergence and persistence of EU institutional and policy structures upholding human rights. -- .