The main focus of the lecture will be the concept of the best interests of the child, stipulated in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. This concept is considered to be one of the most important and difficult to be applied in practice. In family-related situations, there are many factors that need to be taken into account when assessing what is in the best interests of a particular child. This task with regard to what is called ‘new forms of families’ or ‘alternative families’ is even much more difficult. At the same time this is increasingly becoming an evolving issue in Europe. Apart from that, it is often linked to another complicated and challenging topic – the...

Die Auseinandersetzung um die rituelle, medizinisch nicht indizierte Genitalbeschneidung unmündiger Jungen findet seit dem Urteil des Kölner Landgerichts vom Mai 2012 in ganz Europa statt. Viele Disziplinen sind von dieser Auseinandersetzung betroffen: Die Ethnologie, die Medizin, die Soziologie, die Geschichte, aber natürlich auch die Rechtswissenschaften. Die Diskutanten gehen dieser Thematik im Hinblick auf die Kinderrechte, insbesondere das Recht auf körperliche Unversehrtheit, das elterliche Erziehungsrecht sowie das Grundrecht auf Religionsfreiheit nach.

The principal aim of the International Hague Network of Judges (IHNJ) is to improve the operation of the Hague Child Abduction Convention and the handling of other cross-border civil cases relating to children by promoting international judicial co-operation. By creating direct contact points between members of the judiciary in different States, speedier and more satisfactory resolutions of cross-border disputes involving children, and in particular child abduction cases, will be achieved. The IHNJ also allows for the exchange of information between judges to increase knowledge and improve practice under the 1980 Convention and under other Hague Children’s Conventions, as appropriate. Further to presenting the IHNJ, the Emerging Guidance regarding the development of the IHNJ and the General Principles for Judicial Communications,...