Rights of Unaccompanied Minors

Yvonne Vissing, PhD, is a sociologist, founding director of the Center for Childhood & Youth Studies and tenured full Professor of Healthcare Studies at Salem State University, Massachusetts, USA. She has worked in the area of child and youth advocacy for her entire career. She is the author of 7 books and many chapters, professional journal articles and other publications. She has worked as a teacher, researcher, consultant, therapist, award-willing film maker, mediator, guardian-ad-litem, and helps organizations to decrease child abuse and improve child well-being. She is a National Institute of Mental Health Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Whiting Foundation Fellow, was appointed by the Governor to be on the New Hampshire Juvenile Parole Board, is on the board of the National Coalition for the Homeless, works with different child rights groups in the United States, teaches free classes for the National Alliance for Mental Illness, and works with both domestic and international groups. Sofia Leitão, Ph.D., is a Sociologist and the Director of the Research & Development Division at “Hope For Children” CRC (Convention on the Rights of the Child) Policy Center. Over the last decade she has directed the implementation of numerous programmes in the field of the Rights of the Child co-funded by the Rights, Equality & Citizenship programme of the European Commission.  She is the author of a book on media discourses and childhood constructions.

• Clinical Sociology and Its Application to Analysis of Unaccompanied Children.- A World Society Analysis of the Rights of Unaccompanied Minors.- International State Responsibility Obligations to Protect and Provide Access to Justice for the Asylum-Seeking Child: The CRC and the Unaccompanied Minor Border Case Study Using Dahrendorf’s Social Conflict Theory to Proffer a Revised Legal Framework: Australia, Bangladesh/Myanmar to the ASEAN Charter States, the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, Africa, and USA/Mexico.- Refugees and Migrant Children in Europe.- Unaccompanied Foreign Minors and Asylum Seekers Under Italian Law: The Issue of Minors Attaining Majority.- Unaccompanied Minors Seeking Asylum in Denmark: Best Interest, Crime Prevention or Immigration Policy? - The Right to Education of Unaccompanied Minors and the Persistence of an Education Gap in their Transition to Adulthood.- Voluntary Guardianship for Unaccompanied Children in Italy: Strengths and Weaknesses of a New Model.- Detention of Unaccompanied Migrant Children in Portugal: A Call for a Clinical Sociology Intervention.- Unaccompanied Children at the US: Mexico Border.- Hope for Refugees: Challenges in Reception and Integration of Unaccompanied Venezuelan Children in Brazil.- Ageing Out of Care Towards Living a Self-determined Life: A Multidisciplinary Mentoring Model for Unaccompanied Care Leavers.- Conclusion.