INTRODUCTION BY SPECIAL GUEST EDITOR

Abstract

It has been a privilege to bring together this special edition of the Family Court Review , which features a range of research and socio-legal commentary, each article dealing with the question of how respective family law communities are meeting the needs of and according due rights to children affected by postseparation dispute. This edition came from a meeting of two main story lines. The 4th World Congress on Family Law and Children’s Rights in Cape Town in 2005 was attended by many AFCC members and encouraged a new level of responsibility for moving the field beyond its own rhetoric about children’s rights and reinforced the need to better understand what was happening in practice. Concurrently, my own research and clinical inquiries into child inclusion in family law matters began to cohere into a body of work that suggested a potential connection between children’s inclusion and the elusive best interests principle. Seeing the intersection of interests, the Family Court Review editorial team invited me to bring together this special edition. The invited articles were selected to represent a diversity of current thought and action in the arena of children’s rights, and specifically the right to safe and appropriate inclusion. Empirical research about divorce impacts for children, together with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), have created an ethical mandate for widespread review of the core responsibilities of family law interventions. In particular, Articles 3, 9, and 12 of the CRC have been a driving force behind a move toward sensitive representation of children in legal matters that affect them. Article 12 states: