A workshop on children’s litigation was hosted jointly by the ICJ (Sweden) and the Centre for Child Law (contribution funded by Open Society Foundation).

The workshop was held on 15 October 2003 at the University of Pretoria and was attended by 50 delegates representing human rights organisations, para-legal organisations, children’s rights organisations, child law academics, attorneys and advocates.

The first session focused on what litigation has happened relating to children in South Africa thus far, and what opportunities are there for the future. The main points to come out of that session were that children’s litigation in South Africa thus far not been very strategic, that children have often been used as “pawns “ by their litigating parents, that equality arguments have tended dominate over children’s right arguments. Other general themes that emerged from the workshop were the importance of working together with other organisations, as well as the need for a flexible and creative approach to litigating.

To download the full workshop report click here. (File size: 150kb)