Child rights dissertation wins Strathclyde University LLM prize

The annual prize for the best dissertation by a student on the taught masters programme in human rights law at the University of Strathclyde has this year been awarded to Juliet Harris. The dissertation, entitled The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in Scots Law: A case for incorporation, was supervised by Professor Kenneth Norrie.

The dissertation explors whether it is possible, necessary and desirable to incorporate the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into Scots law, and concludes that there is a strong case for doing so but that to achieve the legislative and culture change needed, the precise model of incorporation must be developed in close consultation with wider civil society.

Ms Harris follows previous prizewinners, Gemma McArthur (2015, for her dissertation entitled Has International Human Rights Law Made Room for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Rights within the United Nations Framework and System? and Peter Reid (inaugural prize in 2014 for his dissertation entitled A safeguard or a Barrier to Justice? The Abolition of Corroboration and the Implications of a Human Rights Based Approach to Scottish Criminal Justice).

Commenting on receiving the award, Ms Harris, director of Together (Scottish Alliance for Children’s Rights), described how her research had informed her professional practice.

She said: “I’ve used my dissertation to underpin my discussions with the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in advance of their review of the UK state party in May; to inform my work as chair of the Rights of Child UK (ROCK) (a coalition of NGOs and charities working together to bring children’s rights into UK law); and to support my work on the action groups involved in Scotland’s National Action Plan for Human Rights.”