Exploring ‘Wins’ in Child Rights Strategic Litigation

The Advancing Child Rights Strategic Litigation (ACRiSL) project hosted a panel discussion with a range of experts who have worked on Child Rights Strategic Litigation (CRSL) in different national and legal contexts. The speakers (Benoit van Keirsbilck – Director, Belgian Section of the Defence for Children / Member, UN Committee on the Rights of the Child; Neha Desai – Senior Director of Immigration, National Center for Youth Law (NCYL); and Delphine Rodrik – Border Justice section, European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights) explored the following questions: (1) What is a ‘win’ in child rights strategic litigation? How do we define it? How might our understanding of what constitutes a ‘win’ in a particular case change over the short, middle and long-term?; (2) What kinds of orders/remedies contribute to effective ‘wins’ in CRSL?; and (3) How do we account for cases that lose in court but succeed in bringing about the desired legal or social change in practice?