Thematic research & projects

KeKi conducts functional research to expand its knowledge and expertise on various children’s rights themes. This research is directed towards KeKi’s own capacity-building, training and policy advise. Both the current projects and the results of previous projects can be found here, ordered per theme. Within each theme, a distinction is made between research, policy advise, training and presentations (if applicable).

Please note that on this page, we only list the English output; a full overview of KeKi’s output can be found on the Dutch website.

Children's rights education (*)

Human rights and children’s rights education are often considered as an important condition for the realisation of rights. This kind of education is generally regarded as ‘getting to know the rights’, which is seen as a condition for ‘being able to stand up for those rights’. Multiple authors associate human- and children’s rights education to respecting other people’s rights. In practice and theory this is often reduced to the so-called 'teaching and learning about, through and for human rights' (UN Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training, 2011). However, isn’t children’s rights education much broader than a didactic story?

Based on Reynaert (2013) KeKi proposes a practice of children’s rights education as a social action, characterized by an open learning process, while at the same time making a connection with the broader social context wherein this open learning process takes place. Children’s rights education as individual and collective learning process starts from the daily experiences of children and young people in their environment, with an unsure and unpredictable outcome.

Violence against children (*)

How can international child protection systems offer an effective response to children who are victims of violence? How are the risks of violence reduced by these mechanisms?

Media

Media are increasingly intertwined with the lives of children and young people. How can we approach this connection from a children’s rights perspective?

Asylum and migration

What is the added value of a children's rights perspective in matters of asylum and migration?

Bridging gaps

How can KeKi optimise its role as a bridge on the intersection between children’s rights professionals from research, policy and practice?

Child's best interests

How do we define and operationalise the meaning of this controversial core principle of the CRC?

Participation and citizenship

How can the right of children to be heard in decisions that affect them, be operationalised in research, policy and practice?

International

Multidisciplinary children’s rights research about themes on the intersection between the local and the global.

Justice & Youth care

When children and young people come in contact with the judicial system or with youth care, children's rights become of crucial importance.

Indicators

Child rights indicators are used to monitor the implementation of children’s rights. The choice of which indicators are used, has an important effect on the results that come out of it.

Public space

A critical children’s rights perspective on challenges in the Flemish public space policy, the place of children and young people in public space, and their interaction with other users.

Children's rights & youth

During KeKi’s first policy-cycle, the relationship between youth (18+) and children’s rights was a central theme.