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Law involving the civil, criminal or constitutional rights of children is a recent development, as is the global discourse and international law of human rights treaties and standards. The jurisprudence, consequences, and administration of human rights law for children, while largely undeveloped, are rapidly emerging in treaty law, case law, customary law, legislation, and legal hearings (UN Commission on Human Rights, European Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and the International Criminal Court) around the world. This seminar will examine the framework of children and human rights, including matters of evidence, jurisdiction, and the domestic implementation and applicability of major treaty law. The class will investigate the changing constructions of childhood with its contending frameworks of property, protection, rights, and participation. The class will examine the impact of both essentialism and religious law and traditional customs (such as Shari'a, Islamic Law) on international human rights. Students will examine, in some depth, five substantive areas of human rights law in both the U.S. and abroad: juvenile justice and the deprivation of liberty; sentencing and the death penalty for children; separated children (orphans, street children ,and refugees/asylum-seekers); children in armed conflicts; and child labor. Course Expectations Students will examine the conditions of children incarcerated, executed, institutionalized, separated or laboring in the U.S. in light of international human rights standards and will prepare group presentations of conditions observed first hand (including class trips), as well as submit an individual 10-15 page paper analyzing a specific aspect of human rights for children. Students are expected to read widely, to identify newsworthy and topical events, to participate in class discussions and group projects, and to select, read and discuss two works of literature from the optional reading list. The background textbook is: The International Law on the Rights of the Child, by Geraldine Van Bueren. Weekly reading assignments, including basic treaties, conventions, protocols, cases, and articles, will be provided in advance. Active class discussion matters.