The Boundaries of the Special Place for Children's Rights in EU External Action: Advancing Children's Rights or Reinforcing Old Stereotypes?

Abstract

A 2008 Commission Communication identified the special place for children in EU external action. In effect it calls upon the EU to use its influence through 'available instruments' to promote children's rights globally, although the sense of the communication is that its focus is 'developing' countries. This paper explores the limits of the universal promotion by the EU of children's rights. Australia, for example, has until recently imposed mandatory detention on child asylum seekers. A failure by the United. Kingdom to provide asylum to two children who escaped such detention led to an unsuccessful claim in the English Court of Appeal that their human rights had been breached. The Court identified Australia as a country which observes the rule of law and provides proper forms of redress. In so finding the court relied on certain Australian judicial pronouncements while ignoring significant dissenting opinion. Is this approach consistent with the current EU strategy for the promotion of children's rights? Is the EU approaching the promotion of children's rights as a global matter, or will it reinforce stereotypes that suggest this is an issue for poor countries while it ignores the denial of children's rights in affluent countries regarded as more 'sophisticated'?