An interview with Marilyn Freeman and Nicola Taylor about their edited book, Children’s Right to Identity, Selfhood and International Family Law
Our members, Prof. Marilyn Freeman (University of Westminster, UK) and Prof. Nicola Taylor (University of Otago, New Zealand), talk about their edited collection, Children’s Right to Identity, Selfhood and International Family Law (Edward Elgar, 2025).
Q: What is this edited collection about?
Framed by Article 8 of the CRC (the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child), this pioneering interdisciplinary book explores the child’s right to identity, and the concept of selfhood, in both domestic and cross-border contexts. The psychological and sociocultural factors that contribute to children and young people’s identity formation are first discussed. The chapters that follow then consider a range of life events and transformations experienced by children and young people that have the potential to profoundly impact the evolution and integration of their identities over time.
These include adoption and cross-border placement of children; surrogacy; relocation and international child abduction; child protection and out-of-home care; family violence; forced marriages, child brides and forced religious conversions; gender identity; children in the criminal justice system; unaccompanied migrant children; parental deportation; and child soldiering. Consideration is given to how the child’s right to preservation of their identity in Article 8 is currently interpreted and applied, and why the recognition of identity as an important element in decision-making within family law and related fields is so necessary.
Ways in which children’s right to identity can be taken into account in the international family justice field and allied areas are recommended. These provide fresh insight for the roles of professionals/courts and the quality of child assessment and decision-making processes. Calls are also made for a more expansive approach to the interpretation and application of Article 8 and for its more ready use by lawyers, judges, legislators and State Parties. The drafting of a General Comment on Article 8 by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child is proposed to help clarify its potential scope and meaning.
Q: What made you initiate this volume?
We co-edited this book to draw attention to the critical need for a change in approach to welfare-based decision-making to help improve the outcomes for children and young people who have experienced life-altering experiences and transformations. Currently, the law largely concerns itself with their wellbeing, best interests, protection and/or punishment with little, or no, attention paid to the impact of these transformations on their identity and selfhood. The fundamental change we are seeking is the making visible of that which is currently mostly invisible in thinking, practice and legal policy – the issue of children’s identity and selfhood.
We also wanted to underscore the significance and value of Article 8 in international family justice and human rights contexts. Its current limited application and interpretation are concerning. Article 8’s deliberately broad formulation amply provides the necessary scope to properly recognise a child’s identity and selfhood in assessment and decision-making processes and State Party practices involving children and family members. The need for such recognition is amplified by the nexus between Articles 8 and 12, highlighting the right of a child to actively construct their own identity and sense of self as experienced, understood, felt and expressed by the child.
Finally, we wanted to lift the current veil in family law proceedings so that children’s identity becomes more visible and relevant within its welfare-based decision-making processes. The subsequent unveiling of this more enlightened approach to family law will ensure that its principles and welfare considerations (including identity) can be more widely applied in the related fields of law (like immigration, deportation, asylum) that also impact so seriously on children and family members.
An excerpt from the introductory chapter:
This book’s novelty lies in how it addresses children’s identity in two ways: firstly, in terms of legal identity and the way challenges and transformations across childhood and adolescence might affect that (i.e., the original basis of Article 8); and, secondly, identity in the broader sense of referring to a child’s own sense of self as experienced, understood, felt and expressed by the child. Each aspect is impacted by life events that potentially trigger a legal response, and also by any legal interventions themselves that result. Where the book becomes groundbreaking though is in its tackling of these issues within the family law and related realms. Never before has identity, selfhood and family law been combined in quite this way, nor such emphasis been placed on the incorporation of selfhood within the legal right to identity in this context. …
This book seeks to address the injustice created by Article 8 being a right for children that is hidden in plain sight, largely unrecognised by law, policy and practice. In an effort to redress that injustice, the chapter authors have written about the breadth and significance of the concept of identity, including selfhood; the impact of life-changing events and transformations on children’s identity; the current approach and required changes to achieve the full implementation of Article 8; and the issues embraced within family law as well as those sufficiently closely related where the principles and values of family law could usefully apply in their deliberations and decision-making. The focus of each chapter has been carefully selected to address the synergies between them. Each is about children and young people as members of families, even if they are separated or estranged from them. They may not want to be. They may not always be. And, even if they do remain separated physically, they still continue to be part of their family in reality. That does not change, and it is this aspect of their identity which needs to be properly understood and reflected in our thinking and decision-making.
Benoit van Keirsbilck, a member of the CRC Committee, addressed the all-encompassing nature of identity when he said:
… the right to identity is so obvious. It’s in front of our noses [yet] we almost don’t see it. And so, we really have to make an effort to reflect on it and to realise that it is present in almost all the issues we deal with. (watch experts from the interview here)
Nothing changes until it is changed. This book, in pursuit of the changes we consider necessary, encourages an emphasis on the impact of life events and transformations on children’s identity in a way that has not really occurred before. Impact is critical to understanding how children (and adults) manage their lives after a profound event or experience. It is not enough to just get through it. For society to prosper, the wellbeing of its members is pivotal. Understanding and addressing the impact on the identities and selfhoods of children and young people is a vital tool towards that aim. The effects may remain for years and, in some cases, endure throughout the life course, with the potential to impact future generations. Raising awareness about the broad meaning and importance of identity in the family law and related fields opens up critical new possibilities for how we think about children and their development, wellbeing and best interests, the potential value of Article 8, and the responsiveness of the law in the relevant specialist and cross-border domains. We began this chapter by declaring our wish for change. It is our hope that this book is a stepping-stone towards the achievement of that aim.