Children’s Rights International
Justice is Hope
An Initiative of World Congress on Family Law and Children’s Rights Inc.
Advisory Committee
Founding Patron, Hon. Alastair Nicholson, AO RFD QC
Former Chief Justice of the Family Court of Australia
Carol Bellamy,
Professor Mary Beloff,
Sir Stephen Brown,
Mick Dodson AM,
Stuart Fowler AM,
Savitri Goonesekere,
Michael Habermann,
Mrs Merab Kambamu Kiremire,
The Hon Patrick Mahony DCNZM,
Professor Vitit Muntarbhorn,
Doctor José Ramos-Horta,
Doctor Bhadra Ranchod,
Professor Andrew Schepard,
Sharon Ser,
Professor Geraldine Van Bueren,
Professor Janet Walker FRSA, AcSS,
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The Hon. Alastair Bothwick Nicholson AO RFD QC |
Founding Patron
Hon. Alastair Nicholson, AO RFD QC Former Chief Justice of the Family Court of Australia
The Hon. Alastair Nicholson signed the Roll of Counsel of the Victorian Bar in 1963 and became Queen’s Counsel in 1979. He was appointed by the Victorian Government to conduct a public inquiry into the Richmond City Council in 1981. He was appointed a Justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria in 1982, the Deputy Chairman of the Adult Parole Board in 1982, the Chairman of the Adult Parole Board in 1985 until 1988, the Chief Justice of the Family Court of Australia in 1988, a Justice of the Federal Court of Australia also in 1988, and Judge Advocate General of the Australian Defence Force in 1987, for a five year period, expiring 1992. His Honour holds the rank of Air Vice Marshal.
He received the appointment as an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1992 (AO) and the Reserve Force Decoration in 1992 (RFD). He is a former President of the International Association of Family and Conciliation Courts. His Honour and Mrs Nicholson were for many years members of Kids in Care, a group providing emergency foster care to children and on many occasions they acted as foster parents for such children.
His Honour has since 1984 been the Chairman of the ACSO Centre which is a charitable organisation devoted to the provision of care, accommodation and counselling to ex-prisoners of both sexes. Recently he became patron of the Melbourne Wildlife Sanctuary.
Carol Bellamy
As fourth Executive Director of UNICEF, Carol Bellamy led the agency from 1995 to 2005. During her tenure, Ms. Bellamy focused on five major priorities: immunizing every child; getting all girls and boys into school, and getting all schools to offer quality basic education; reducing the spread of HIV/AIDS and its impact on young people; fighting for the protection of children from violence and exploitation; and introducing early childhood programmes in every country.
Under Ms. Bellamy's leadership, UNICEF became a champion of global investment in children, arguing that efforts to reduce poverty and build a more secure world can only be successful if they ensure that children have an opportunity to grow to adulthood in health, peace and dignity. She challenged leaders from all walks of life to recognize their moral, social, and economic responsibility to invest in children - and to shift national resources accordingly.
Ms. Bellamy left behind a fiscally sound organization with strong internal controls. During her tenure, she doubled UNICEF's resources from roughly $800 million in 1994 to more than $1.8 billion in 2004.
Notable advances for children during Ms. Bellamy’s tenure at UNICEF include:
- A 16 per cent drop in child mortality worldwide since 1990, with progress in every region except Sub-Saharan Africa, where AIDS and conflict have devastated health systems and community coping mechanisms
- A 99 per cent reduction in polio since 1988
- A 40 per cent reduction in measles since 1999
- A 50 per cent decrease in diarrhoea deaths since 1990
- A greater number of children in school than ever before
- The enactment of national laws and policies in dozens of countries to better protect and service children.
She encouraged the General Assembly to allow children to take part in the UN Special Session on Children in May 2002, and hundreds did, meeting directly with Heads of State to discuss the issues affecting their lives. The ground-breaking summit adopted new global goals for children and provided world leaders with ideas and inspiration for achieving them. (A complete overview is available at http://www.unicef.org/specialsession/.)
Prior to joining UNICEF, Ms. Bellamy was Director of the United States Peace Corps. Having served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala from 1963 to 1965, she was the first former volunteer to run the organization, which works in more than 90 countries.
Ms. Bellamy has had a distinguished career in the private sector. She was a Managing Director of Bear Stearns & Co. from 1990 to 1993, and a Principal at Morgan Stanley and Co. from 1986 to 1990. Between 1968 and 1971 she was an associate at Cravath, Swaine and Moore.
Ms. Bellamy also spent 13 years as an elected public official, including five years in the New York State Senate (1973-1977). In 1978, she became the first woman to be elected President of the New York City Council, a position she held until 1985.
Ms. Bellamy earned her law degree from New York University in 1968. She is a former Fellow of the Institute of Politics at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, and an honorary member of Phi Alpha Alpha, the U.S. National Honor Society for Accomplishment and Scholarship in Public Affairs and Administration. Ms. Bellamy graduated from Gettysburg College in 1963. She was born and raised in the New York area. She is a Mets fan.
Upon leaving UNICEF, Ms. Bellamy has taken a new position as CEO and President of World Learning and President of its School for International Training. World Learning, based in Vermont, is one of the world's first private, non-profit, international educational organizations.
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 Professor Mary Beloff
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Professor Mary Beloff
Professor Mary Beloff is a leading academic figure as well as a recognized activist in the field of children’s rights and juvenile justice throughout Latin America. She graduated with honors from the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) Law School and earned the Magistri in Legibus (LL.M.) degree at Harvard Law School. As a young legal scholar, she developed the first curricula and taught the first juvenile justice course at the UBA Law School. This was an historical moment since there had never been a juvenile justice course in any law school in Latin America. Prof. Beloff continues teaching as a law professor in children´ rights, juvenile justice, gender and criminal law, and other related courses. She created the first clinical program on children’s rights at the University of Buenos Aires.
Prof. Beloff has been a visiting professor in numerous Latin-American universities and has coordinated various research studies in children’s rights and juvenile justice.
As legal advisor and human rights activist, she has been deeply involved in the process of adopting the CRC at the domestic level through legal and institutional reforms all around the region. Prof. Beloff is responsible for drafting many of the modern Latin-American legislation on child protection and juvenile justice. Prof. Beloff was delegated with the responsibilities of providing continuing education to judges, prosecutors, public defenders and various NGO´s members.
Prof. Beloff´s renowned reputation in her areas of expertise has made her a highly sought international consultant. She has served as a consultant to various Latin American governments, international organizations, such as UNICEF, IDB, UNOPS, ILANUD, OAS, UN and numerous NGOs.
In 2002 she was appointed Senior Legal Advisor for the newly created Rapporteurship on Childhood at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
Currently, she is a member of the Advisory Panel of the UN Study on Violence against Children.
She has written numerous books and articles on children’s rights, criminal law and juvenile justice. Many of her books and articles have been deemed as mandatory readings in various law schools in academic courses on children’s rights in Latin-America.
Sir Stephen Brown
Stephen Brown was born in Longdon Green, Staffordshire and educated at Malvern College. He read Law at Queens' College, Cambridge. After serving as a Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve between 1943 and 1946, he married in 1951. He has five children, three daughters and twin sons.
As a lawyer, Stephen Brown's career began as a barrister of the Inner Temple in 1949. From 1963 he was Deputy Chairman of the Staffordshire Quarter Sessions and was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1966. He became Recorder and Honorary Recorder for West Bromwich in 1972 and in 1975 a Judge of the High Court Family Division and later the Queen's Bench Division. During the late 1970s and early 1980s he was Presiding Judge of the Midland and Oxford Circuit.
Stephen Brown has served on many important legal boards and committees. He was a member of the Parole Board in England and Wales from 1967 to 1971, and later served on the Butler Committee on Mentally Abnormal Offenders and on the Advisory Council on Penal Systems. He was Chair of the Advisory Committee on Conscientious Objectors between 1971 and 1975. His work is widely recognised as influential.
Sir Stephen became a Privy Counsellor in 1983 and served as a Lord Justice of Appeal for five years from 1983.
The contribution made by Sir Stephen to law, and, thereby, to society, has been particularly significant in the field of Family Law. He was President of the Family Division of the High Court for an eleven-year period from 1988. During that period he chaired one of the annual 'Counsell Lectures' organised by the University of the West of England and the Family Law Bar Association in 1998. The theme for the day was 'Medico Legal Issues related to the Family'.
Sir Stephen Brown has had an outstandingly successful career and played a leading role in the reform and development of the Family Division of the High Court. His contribution to the law and the legal system is recognised by his peers throughout England and Wales as remarkable.
Mick Dodson AM
Professor Mick Dodson is a member of the Yawuru peoples the traditional Aboriginal owners of land and waters in the Broome area of the southern Kimberley region of Western Australia. He is currently Professor in Indigenous Studies at the Australian National University (ANU) and Convenor of the ANU’s Institute for Indigenous Australia.
Professor Dodson is also currently a Director of Dodson, Bauman & Associates Pty Ltd – Legal & Anthropological Consultants. He is formerly the Director of the Indigenous Law Centre at the University of New South Wales, Kensington.
Mick Dodson was Australia’s first Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner with the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity. He served as Commissioner from April 1993 to January 1998.
Born in the Northern Territory township of Katherine, Mick was educated in Katherine, Darwin and Victoria. He completed a Bachelor of Jurisprudence and a Bachelor of Laws at Monash University. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of Technology Sydney in 1998. He also holds an honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of NSW. He worked with the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service from 1976 to 1981, when he became a barrister at the Victorian Bar. He joined the Northern Land Council as Senior Legal Adviser in 1984 and became Director of the Council in 1990.
From August 1988 to October 1990 Mick was Counsel assisting the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. He has been a member of the Victorian Equal Opportunity Advisory Council and secretary of the North Australian Legal Aid Service. He is a member and the current Chairman of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. He is the former Chairman of the National Aboriginal Youth Law Centre Advisory Board. He is a recently retired member of the National Children’s & Youth Centre Board and is the convenor of the Advisory panels of the Rob Riley and Koowarta Scholarships. Mick is also a member of the Publications Committee for the University of New South Wales Indigenous Law Reporter. He is also a member of the New South Wales Judicial Commission and the Western Australian Law Reform Commission. He is also a board member of the Reconciliation Australia and Lingiari Foundations. He is the current chairman of the Australian Indigenous Leadership Centre.
Mick Dodson has been a prominent advocate on land rights and other issues affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Mick Dodson is a vigorous advocate of the rights and interests of the Indigenous Peoples of the world. He was the Co-Deputy Chair of the Technical Committee for the 1993 International Year of the World’s Indigenous People. He is also chairman of the United Nations Advisory Group for the Voluntary Fund for the Decade of Indigenous Peoples. He serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of the United Nations Indigenous Voluntary Fund. In January 2005 Prof Dodson takes up a 3 year appointment as a member of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.
Mick has for over a decade participated in the crafting of the text of the Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in the United Nation Working Group on Indigenous Populations and in its more recent consideration by the Working Group of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.
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The Hon. Justice Stuart Fowler AM |
The Hon. Justice Stuart Fowler AM
The Hon. Justice Stuart Fowler AM was appointed a judge of the Family Court of Australia on November 16 2007. Prior to that he was a senior Sydney solicitor specializing in the practice of family law and is Principal of Stuart Fowler and Partners in Sydney, Australia. He is the founding and current co-chairman of the World Congress on Family Law and Children’s Rights Inc, and a co-convenor of the First, Second, Third and Fourth World Congresses on Family Law and Children’s Rights. After holding a number of positions on the Executive of the Law Council of Australia, Australia’s peak council of Lawyers, he became President of the Council in 1994. In that role he represented Australian Lawyers at a number of international meetings including as a member of the Council of the Commonwealth Lawyers Association. He is a former chairman of the Family Law Section of the Law Council of Australia and the founding chairman of the Family Law and Family Rights Section of the Law Association for Asia and the Pacific (Lawasia ).
He was one of the first Australians to be elected as a Fellow of the International Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. He is the Vice Chairman of the New South Wales Family Law Practitioners Association. He has served for many years as a member of the Family Law Committee of the Law Society of New South Wales. He was the inaugurator and a founding member of the board of the Australian Institute of Family Law Arbitrators and Mediators. He has served on the advisory committee on the accreditation of Family Law Specialists in NSW. He has been honoured by the United Nations in an Award naming him as a patron of the International Year of the Family for outstanding services to that year. He was Chairman of the Law Council’s Australian Rights Conference examining means to protect human rights in Metropolitan law. He has a strong belief in the ability of lawyers to use their skills to make a real contribution to the promotion and protection of human rights, particularly those of children.
Savitri Goonesekere
Savitri Goonesekere LLB Cey.,LLM Harvard 1963 D Litt. Honoris Cansa Open University of Sri Lanka, LLD Honoris Cansa . University of Colombo Sri Lanka. She was appointed as Professor of Law in the Open University of Sri Lanka in 1983 and initiated and developed the University's LLB programme. She was appointed as the first woman Professor of Law in the Faculty of Law, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka in 1995 and became the first woman to hold the Post of Vice Chancellor (President) in 1999.
She has held research fellowship in several universities overseas, and served from 1999 to 2002 as an expert on the UN CEDAW Treaty Body. She has published extensively in the areas of gender and development, human rights, including women and children's rights, family law and legal history. Her publications include a book on the Convention on the Rights of the Child titled 'Children Law and Justice: A South Asian Perspective'. She is currently Professor Emeritus at the University of Colombo a member of the Editorial Board of the UN Secretary General's study on violence against children. She continues to serve as a member of the Board of several national, regional and international organisations.
Michael Habermann
Michael is a solicitor in private practise in his own firm, Habermann & Associates – Family Lawyers, in Brisbane, Queensland.
He has practised solely in the family law field for over 30 years and is an Accredited Family Law Specialist.
Michael was a foundation member of World Congress Inc and is its Treasurer. Among other positions held, he was on the Executive of the Family Law Section of the Law Council of Australia for 10 years, on the Executive of the Australian Institute of Family Law Arbitrators and Mediators for 5 years, was a foundation member of the Family Law Practitioner’s Association (Queensland) and its President for 6 years, and he has been on many committees of the Queensland Law Society.
Michael’s memberships include: ABA (Family Law Section), IAML, IBA, Union Internationale Des Advocats, and the Family Law and Family Rights Section of LAWASIA.
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Mrs Merab Kambamu Kiremire |
Mrs Merab Kambamu Kiremire
A Development Worker, researcher, policy advocate and writer with a passion for women and children’s human rights, is currently the Director of the MAPODE (Movement of Community Action for the Prevention and Protection of Poverty, Destitution, Diseases and Exploitation), a child/youth-at-risk focused community-based Non Governmental Organisation which implements Child/Youth poverty/ Destitution, Diseases and Exploitation prevention and protection projects and activities in Zambia and Uganda through its Centres for Young People-at-Risk. She has worked with organisations such as ICRC, USAID and FINNIDA. In 1997 she won the FAWE Agatha Uwilingiyimana Memorial Prize Laureate for initiating one of Africa’s best projects on the education of women: Tasintha Rehabilitation Programme for Women and Children in Prostitution. She is also the Vice President of both SANTAC (Southern African Campaign Against the Abuse and Trafficking of Children for Exploitation Purposes) and CANGOC (Coalition of African NGOs working for and with Children).
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The Hon. Patrick Mahony DCNZM |
The Hon Patrick Mahony DCNZM
The Hon Patrick Mahony DCNZM was Principal Family Court Judge for New Zealand from 1985 - 2004. He served two terms on the Board of Directors of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts. He has had strong connections with the Hague Conference over many years and with Family Courts in Australia, United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
He is a Trust Board member of the Roy McKenzie Centre for the Study of Families, at Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand. He has had a special interest in domestic violence issues, particularly those effecting children.
Has visited Thailand, Vietnam and South Pacific providing advice, seminars and lectures on the topic of domestic violence and he is closely involved in developing legal and social responses within New Zealand to these issues.
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Professor Vitit Muntarbhorn |
Professor Vitit Muntarbhorn
Professor Vitit Muntarbhorn of Thailand has been appointed by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights Chairman Mike Smith as Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. The appointment was made on 13 July 2004 in consultation with representatives of the different regional groups in the Commission.
Mr. Muntarbhorn has earned international recognition for his expertise in human rights. He has served in various capacities in the United Nations system, including as Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography (1990-1994) and as expert or adviser to many United Nations organizations. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Technical Cooperation on Human Rights.
Mr. Muntarbhorn is currently a Professor of Law at ChulalongkornUniversity, Bangkok, teaching international law, human rights, humanitarian law and a variety of other subjects. He has participated in over 150 activities as seminar/ conference speaker, presenter or rapporteur in all regions of the world, ranging from United Nations conferences to training programmes for non-governmental organizations. He has published widely both locally and internationally on subjects ranging from human rights in the Asia-Pacific region to refugee law, child rights, women's rights and humanitarian law. He also undertakes various pro bono activities to help the civil society sector, such as training programmes on human rights.
Special Rapporteurs and other "mandate-holders" of the Commission are independent from any government and serve in their individual capacity. The Special Rapporteur on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is mandated to investigate and report to the Commission and the General Assembly on the situation of human rights in the country, including compliance with its obligations under both international human rights instruments and international humanitarian law.
Doctor José Ramos-Horta
José Ramos-Horta is the President of East Timor (Timor Leste). The Nobel Peace Prize recipient in 1996, he was born on 26 December 1949, in Dili, the capital of East Timor and was educated in a Catholic mission in the village of Soibada. A radio and television journalist from 1969 until 1974, he was appointed Minister for External Affairs and Information in the first Transitional Government of the Democratic republic of East Timor.
He was selected to represent East Timor overseas, and left three days before Indonesian troops invaded in November, 1975. He was the permanent representative of FRETILIN at the UN from 1976 until 1989 and has been a tireless advocate for a free and independent East Timor, to governments, the media and at international fora such as the UN Security Council, the General Assembly Decolonization Committeee and the Commission on Human Rights of the European Parliament. He studied Public International Law at The Hague Academy of International Law in 1983 and completed an MA in Peace Studies at Antioch University in 1984. His work on behalf of the people of East Timor saw him awarded the 1996 Nobel Peace prize, as a joint recipient with Bishop Belo.
Doctor Bhadra Ranchod
Dr. Bhadra Ranchod has played a leadership role in careers as a legal academic, public servant, diplomat and in government.
Born in Port Elizabeth (1944) he completed his matriculation at what was then South End High School. He proceeded to study law at Cape Town University where he obtained the B.A. and LL.B degrees (1967). He represented Cape Town University at a number of conferences in South Africa. On campus his leadership qualities were recognized with the election to the Day Students Council.
He was awarded a postgraduate scholarship to study at Leiden University in The Netherlands where he completed the Master of Laws (Doctorandus Iuris) in 1969. Thereafter he proceeded to Queens’ College Cambridge to conduct research on his doctoral thesis. On 21 June 1972 he obtained the Doctor of Laws degree from Leiden. His thesis, The Foundations of the South African Law of Defamation, is a published work that is well known in academic circles and has been referred to in judgements of the High Court.
On his return to South Africa in 1972 the Cape Town Supreme Court admitted him as an Advocate. He then embarked on an academic career at the University of Durban-Westville (1972 – 1986). Within months his talents as a leader were recognized when he was elected President of the University’s Staff Association. In January 1974 he was appointed at the age of 29 as Professor and Head of the Department of Private Law, a position which he held until 1986. In the capacity as Professor of Private Law the subjects taught included, Family Law, Property Law, Contract and the Law of Delict. He was actively interested in the promotion of human rights law as well as constitutional reform and much of his earlier presentations dealt with issues relating to racism and discrimination as entrenched under apartheid. During that time he became Dean of the Law Faculty, Vice President of the Society of University Teachers of Law and served on several national professional bodies.
In 1980/81 he spent a year at the Law School at Columbia University in New York City where research was undertaken on a Bill of Rights for South Africa.
During his academic career he was awarded several awards by the British, German and American Governments to do research and lecture at leading universities abroad. He has had extensive experience in organizing major conferences locally and has served on planning committees for several world law conferences. He thus had extensive experience in dealing with South Africans across many strata as well as considerable international experience.
From 1987 to mid –1992 he served as Ambassador to the European Union in Brussels.
On returning to South Africa, he was appointed Director-General (Secretary) of a government Department.
He was appointed to the Cabinet with the Tourism portfolio in 1993.
With the first democratic elections held in April 1994, Dr. Ranchod was elected as a Member of Parliament (National Assembly) for KwaZulu-Natal. On 9 May of that year the newly elected members of the National Assembly chose him to serve as Deputy Speaker. In this capacity be brought with him talents to work very closely with the Speaker in managing the new Parliament. He proved to be an effective presiding officer who won the respect of all members for the evenhanded manner in which he executed his duties.
In June 1996 Dr. Ranchod was appointed by former President Nelson Mandela as High Commissioner to Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific Islands.
During his term in Canberra, he has spearheaded close relations with the governments of Australia and New Zealand. South Africa has also established diplomatic ties with Fiji, Samoa, the Solomon Island, the Cook Islands and Vanuatu during his term.
Dr. Ranchod completed his tour of duty in Canberra on 28 July 2000 and is presently a member of the Faculty of Law at the University of Stellenbosch.He has continued to be involved in making presentations and researching socio-legal issues with particular reference to the range of socio-economic rights contained in our Constitution.He has presented papers at world conferences held in the U.K.(2001) and was a keynote speaker at a number of major conferences held locally and in Australia and Europe during 2002. and 2003.
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Professor Andrew Schepard |
Professor Andrew Schepard
Professor Schepard's special interests are in family law, especially as it affects children, civil litigation, alternative dispute resolution and developing simulation-based programs of clinical education. He is the Co-Director of the Hofstra University-North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System's Center for Children, Families and the Law. In 1995 Professor Schepard was awarded the Chair's Cup of the Family Law Section of the American Bar Association for "meritorious service exceeding what is expected of our leadership."
Professor Schepard is a 1972 graduate of Harvard Law School and was articles editor of the Harvard Law Review. Following graduation he clerked for Judge James L. Oakes of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Later he was special counsel to the City Attorney of Los Angeles and in private practice in civil litigation, with several law firms in Los Angeles and New York. He has served as a special consultant to the State Bar of California to develop legislative proposals to simplify court procedures. Professor Schepard was previously on the faculties of Columbia University and the University of Southern California Law School. He was a principal consultant to the New York Law Revision Commission's Report on the Child Custody Dispute Resolution Process, which recommended a program of mediation for child custody disputes.
Professor Schepard is a founder and project director for Parent Education and Custody Effectiveness (P.E.A.C.E.), an interdisciplinary, court-affiliated education program for parents to help them reduce the difficulties their children experience during divorce and separation. P.E.A.C.E. has produced an award-winning video for parents and has been recognized by the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts for its "ongoing contribution to improving the lives of parents and children." Professor Schepard also helped design PARTNERS, an educational program for high school students about the legal responsibilities of marriage and communication skills, sponsored by the Family Law Section of the American Bar Association, in use in more than 400 schools nationwide. He is the reporter for the Task Force of the American Bar Association Family Law Section, for Standards of Practice for Divorce and Family Mediation recently adapted by the ABA. He is the editor of the Family Court Review, an interdisciplinary journal focusing on constructive resolution of family conflict, sponsored by Association of Family and Conciliation Courts and published at Hofstra Law School. He is the director of the National Institute for Trial Advocacy's Northeast Deposition Program for Practicing Lawyers.
Professor Schepard has written many articles about divorce, child custody law, procedure and mediation of child custody disputes, as well as other aspects of judicial administration. He founded the Law and Children column of the New York Law Journal. He is an adjunct Professor in the Department of Child Psychiatry at New York University Medical School. He was formerly chairman of the Legal Affairs Committee of the National Governing Board of Common Cause and a member of the Board of Education of the Mamaroneck School District. He is a former member of the board of directors of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and an elected member of the American Law Institute. (Courtesy of Hofstra University)
Sharon Andrea Ser
Sharon Andrea Ser was admitted to practice as a Solicitor in England in 1983 and in Hong Kong 1987, having first worked as a Research Assistant at the House of Commons, London in 1975. She obtained her LLB at the London School of Economics, London in 1979. Between 1980 – 1987 she was a Solicitor and then Partner with a legal firm in Twickenham, West London, England - specialising in Family Law. She has been a Member of the Citizens Advice Bureau Legal Panel and a Member of Law Society Child Care Panel. In 1987 she became a Partner with Hampton, Winter & Glynn Solicitors Hong Kong - specialising in Family Law.
She is a Member of the Hong Kong Law Society Family Law Committee, a Member of the Sterling Committee for Reform of Ancillary Relief, she was Chairman of Hong Kong Family Law Association from 1992 – 1998, she is a Member of the Hong Kong Family Law Executive Committee and a frequent lecturer for the Law Society on Family Law conducting workshops on Advocacy in Family Law and custody issues. She is the author of the Divorce Section, "Protecting Assets on Divorce" of the Far Eastern edition of "Credit Suisse Guide to Managing your wealth” She is a Fellow of International Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers.
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Professor Geraldine Van Bueren |
Professor Geraldine Van Bueren
International Human Rights, Public Law
Geraldine Van Bueren is the holder of two chairs. She is Professor of International Human Rights Law at Queen Mary, University of London, and was appointed to a second concurrent chair at the University of Cape Town in 2001. In 2003 she was awarded the Child Rights Lawyer Award. The Award, jointly organised by the Law Society, UNICEF and The Lawyer magazine, honours lawyers who have done outstanding work in the field of children’s rights.
Geraldine Van Bueren is also a barrister and is an Associate Tenant with Doughty Street Chambers. Goodenough College has appointed her as a Fellow.
Professor Geraldine Van Bueren is one of the original drafters of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and also helped draft the United Nations Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty, the UNHCR Guidelines on Refugee Children and the United Nations Programme of Action on Children in the Criminal Justice System. She works extensively with intergovernmental organisations, governments and non-governmental organisations raising national laws to the international legal standard, including, the United Nations, the Commonwealth, Save the Children and Human Rights Watch. She represented Amnesty International for ten years at the UN on children’s rights and is a member of the Advisory Board of Human Rights Watch (Children’s Rights Project).
Recent publications include: International Law on the Rights of the Child (Kluwer, 1998); International Documents on Children 2nd edn (Kluwer, 1998); Childhood Abused: Protecting Children Against Torture, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment (Aldershot, Dartmouth, 1998). She is currently writing a second edition of International Law on the Rights of the Child. Her writings have been cited in courts around the world, most recently by the Constitutional Court of South Africa and the European Court of Human Rights.
She has written for the Times, The Guardian, and other leading newspapers around the world and confounded and co-edited the International Journal of Human Rights. She is also on the advisory board of a number of academic journals including De Jure, the African Human Rights Journal and the Nottingham Human Rights Review.
To increase the number of lawyers working in children’s rights she established PIRCH (the Programme on International Rights of the Child) in l991 as the first university based centre on the international rights of the child and she works as its director.
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Professor Janet Walker FRSA, AcSS |
Professor Janet Walker FRSA, AcSS
Janet Walker was Director of the Newcastle Centre for Family Studies between 1985 and 2005 and is currently Emeritus Professor of Family Policy at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in England. The Centre was originally established by the Lord Chancellor to study the effectiveness of family mediation in England and Wales and has continued to undertake research for the Government in the area of family law and divorce reform. Janet is trained and experienced as a Probation Officer, Family Therapist and Family Mediator. As an academic for the last 25 years she has directed over 40 research studies, and published widely on marriage and divorce, family mediation, marital counselling, family communication, post-divorce parenting, domestic violence, crime and policing. She has worked closely with government departments and with practitioners in the statutory, voluntary and private sectors. Janet has held a number of appointments on national and international committees; provided advice to various Ministries of Justice; and in the late 1990s worked with the Council of Europe as expert consultant in the field of Family Mediation and Alternative Dispute Resolution.
