Human Rights and Legal Services for Children and Youth

This book discusses legal services clinics and various other access-to-justice initiatives that are established to protect and represent the rights and interests of children and youth in several countries across the globe. These could include legal services or access-to-justice clinics run by government or universities or community. The book has contributions from academicians, lawyers, researchers and legal professionals from several counties including India, UK, USA, Brazil, Australia, Indonesia, Poland, and Spain, which discuss how they represent children and youth in their countries. The book looks at how these access-to-justice initiatives currently provide assistance, what are the child friendly justice procedures they use, and best practices that can be replicable in other jurisdictions. The chapters contain findings of field research studies, some case studies, and models related to these topics. There are recommendations on ways to strengthen access-to-justice and legal services for empowering children and youth. The main goal is to create a resource for readers who want to expand child advocacy opportunities in their own universities and communities. The reader may also learn how to conduct legislative advocacy and case law advocacy to improve laws in other jurisdictions; and take-away best and replicable initiatives. The practices could be adaptable by other clinics and countries. The book will be useful to child rights advocates and defenders, students of law, legal researchers, civil society organizations, legal services authorities, legal aid institutions, educational institutions, school authorities, juvenile justice authorities, clinical legal educators, justice educators, justice practitioners and law and policy makers.

Prof. Dr. Asha Bajpai recently retired from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai and is now a visiting faculty at several national and international law schools. She obtained her MPhil and PhD in law from the National Law School of India University, Bangalore; and specializes in child rights law, public health law, access to justice for vulnerable and disadvantaged. She has been involved in teaching, research, training, gender justice issues, legal aid, clinical education and legislative reform, relating to vulnerable, for more than three decades. She has several publications to her credit. Her book ‘Child Rights in India -- Law, Policy and Practice’ is now in its third edition. Her other publications include ‘From Exploitation to Empowerment: A Socio-Legal Model of Rehabilitation and Reintegration of Intellectually Disabled Children’ (authored book, 2018),  ‘Adoption Law and Justice to the Child’ (authored for institution, 1996), ‘Child Sexual Abuse - Need for Law Reform’ (Indian Journal of Social Work), etc.  She is lead speaker, resource person and faculty at various national and international universities and conferences. She was a Fulbright lecturer at the Washington College of Law, American University, where she designed and taught a course to LLM and JD students on International and Comparative Child Rights Law.

As Professor of Law and Founding Dean of School of Law at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, India, she designed the unique LLM course on Access to Justice, for preparing community lawyers. She has been involved in several law reform projects and capacity building of judicial and law enforcement officials. She was Project Director of field action projects such as Legal Services Clinic for the marginalized and vulnerable groups and Chunauti (challenge) for rehabilitation and social reintegration of orphan children in institutions. Regularly invited as Amicus Curiae and expert by Mumbai and Delhi High Courts in Public Interest Litigation, she was also the Invited Expert at the UNESCO High Level meeting on ECCE (early childhood care and education) and with UNODC on Education for Justice. She does consultancy assignments for United Nations and Global Justice Sector Workforce, and continues her capacity building and law reform work.

Professor David Tushaus is Associate Dean of Graduate and Experiential Education at Jigme Singye Wangchuck School of Law, Bhutan. He was a Fulbright-Nehru Scholar in 2012 at Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi, India. He also served as a Fulbright Specialist for the University of The Gambia Faculty of Law in 2017. He was an International Clinician in Residence and Fulbright Specialist in Myanmar in the summer of 2018 and 2019. He was then an Ambassadors Distinguished Scholar at Bahir Dar School of Law, Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia. Professor Tushaus was a staff attorney and clinic director for the Midwest Innocence Project and the University of Missouri – Kansas City. Prior to that he was a professor in the Department of Criminal Justice, Legal Studies and Social Work, and chairperson for ten years, at Missouri Western State University. He developed service-learning approaches to teaching legal research, legal drafting, election law, and human rights. Earlier, he worked for Legal Aid of Western Missouri obtaining grants, supervising staff and handling cases involving government benefits, health care, consumer issues, domestic violence, disabilities, and farm problems. Awards for his advocacy include a 1995 Missouri Health Law Advocacy Award for state-wide work for consumer protections. More recently, he received the Missouri Governor’s Award for Excellence in Education in 2011.

Dr. M.R.K. Prasad is Professor of Law at V.M. Salgaocar College of Law, Goa, India. He has served the same institute as Principal from 2015 to 2020, and as Dean, Faculty of Law, and Chairman, Board of Studies in Law at Goa University. He has also served as Professor of Law at the Indian Law Institute, New Delhi, India. He is instrumental in establishing and functionalizing Community Legal Aid Clinics set up in the Indian State of Goa. He was a member of the core team to design and teach in Winter Intersession India International & Comparative Human Rights Law Practicum, a joint venture between law schools in India and the United States. He was a member of the Committee constituted by the Chief Justice of India & Patron-in-Chief, NALSA, for preparing SOP/guidelines for the legal services institutions engaging Legal Aid/Services Clinics set up in the law schools, colleges, and universities in India; Member of Goa NGO Accreditation Committee, constituted by the Women and Child Department, Government of Goa; Member of the Goa State Commission for Protection of Child Rights; Member of Committee to Draft Goa State Prison Rules and Member of the Expert Committee for Diploma in Legal Literacy Program, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU). He was a member of developing e-content on Access to Justice for the University Grants Commission (UGC)’s Project on E-Pathshala for Post Graduate Courses in Law. He also contributed to course content for School of Law, IGNOU, and UGC. He has published several scholarly articles and essays in leading law journals, including Clinical Law Review, Journal of Indian Law Institute, and Delhi Law Review, apart from regularly contributing to the Annual Survey of Indian Law since 2012. During his tenure as Principal at V.M. Salgaocar College of Law, he was the founding Director of the institute's Moot Court Society, its ADR Board, and Chairman of its Legal Aid Society.