Large numbers of children all over the world face significant health risks, such as infectious and chronic diseases, malnutrition, injuries and the consequences of natural disasters, protracted armed conflicts and poverty.

On 21 Januari 2020, Patrick van Berlo defended his thesis 'Human Rights Elephants in an Era of Globalisation: Commodification, Crimmigration, and Human Rights in Confinement'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. J.P. van der Leun and Prof. M.A.H. van der Woude.

On Wednesday 25 June 2025 Dechun Zhang successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.

Summer School

The Australian parliament passed a law banning social media for youth under sixteen in late November. This solves nothing, argues Simone van der Hof, Professor of Law and Digital Technologies, in NRC. ‘Services should be held to the law.’

Which challenges exist for girls to effectuate their right to education and specifically getting access to education?

Gianclaudio Malgieri, Associate Professor at eLaw, has published a new article together with Cristiana Santos, Assistant Professor at Utrecht University, titled 'Assessing (the Severity of) Impact on Fundamental Rights' in the journal Computer Law & Security Review (CLSR), published by Elsevier.

On 3 December 2019, Meda Couzens defended her thesis 'The application of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child by national courts'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. T. Liefaard and Prof. J.J. Sloth-Nielsen.

On Thursday 20 May 2021, Tania Li delivered the annual Van Vollenhoven Lecture.

This summer school focuses on the emergence of sexual orientation, gender identity (SOGI) and intersex issues in different areas of international law, such as human rights law, refugee law, international economic law, and international criminal law. Details on the application for this edition are available…

The Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University is a partner in the new university-wide Data Science research programme that advocates the use of data science in various fields of research.

This week the regional court in The Hague gave a ruling that has attracted international attention. The State of the Netherlands (Ministry of Social Affairs) was taken to court by two famous writers, Wieringa and Februari, several NGOs and a trade union.

This thesis studies theoretical surface chemistry within the field of heterogeneous catalysis.

This special issue of the peer-reviewed journal Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik (Brill, 2021) brings together articles that explore new digital ways of analyzing and annotating Old English vocabulary.

Develop a tool to assess land tenure, access to land and, and land tenure conflict in Timor-Leste

On 11 June 2020, Sabine Witting defended her thesis 'Child Sexual Abuse in the Digital Era: Rethinking Legal Frameworks and Transnational Law Enforcement Collaboration'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. J.J. Sloth-Nielsen and Prof. S. van der Hof.

This COIn Grant 2025 awarded project allows Leiden University researchers and students to do research on the world’s largest corpus of digitized Ottoman language periodicals and books.

In secondary school, homophobic language is common, even in the Netherlands where there is high acceptance of homosexuality in the adult population. Adolescents especially in lower educational levels have prevailingly negative attitudes towards their lesbian and gay peers. Peer education with its participatory…

The article offers a comparative systematic literature review of the principles, norms, and strategies associated with Security by Design and Privacy by Design

Does foreign aid promote human rights?

In this article, Meier & Nadler suggest that while non-citizen enfranchisement boosts participation across all citizens, citizens with immigration backgrounds are more reactive to the NCV rights in terms of higher turnout. In this way, the paper adds a critical nuance to individual-based explanations…

In the present-day United States, to what degree(s) are far-right men and women similar and/or dissimilar in their motivating factors for engaging in far-right social movement activism?

The call for a social media ban for children is louder than ever. Professor of Children's Rights Ton Liefaard argues in ‘Trouw’ newspaper that this would be unwise. 'For children, online and offline aren't different worlds'.

The Hague Program for Cyber Norms, a research program at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs, published its first policy brief, in which Dennis Broeders, Sergei Boeke and Ilina Georgieva explore the role of intelligence agencies in cyberspace and the (im)possibilities of oversight and regulation…

The drafting of a handbook that serves as the first guide to European law in the area of children's rights, taking into account the case law of the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), as well as the decisions of the European Committee of Social Rights…

On November 17, 2017, Professor Simone van der Hof gave a duo lecture with her colleague Professor Eva Lievens from Ghent University during the 'Children and Digital Rights' conference at the Information Law and Policy Centre, which is part of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (University of L…

Barrie Sander identifies different categories of risks and concern of relying on artificial intelligence technologies to confront climate change.

This research explores how international organisations responded to the humanitarian and human rights challenges brought about by COVID-19.

The fourteen Dutch universities have published a digital magazine in which the researchers explain the Digital Society programme in text and images.

On 15 May the new website about the research programme Digital Society has been launched.

Europe is working full steam towards a digital identity for every EU citizen. And although it might be really useful to be able to hire a car everywhere in the EU with no hassles, Bart Custers, Professor of Law and Data Science at eLaw, the Center for Law and Digital Technologies, sees many loose ends.…

On 9 May 2018, Roy van Keulen defended his doctoral thesis 'Digital Force: Life, Liberty & Livelihood in the Information Age'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. dr. A. Ellian.

Nuran Buket Cengiz defended her thesis on 13 June 2017

On 27 February, 2019, Kampala International University (KIU) was the venue of the conference ‘Digital Health and Development in Data Science in Uganda’. Professor Mirjam van Reisen from the Leiden Centre of Data Science was one of the main speakers.

On the 1st of November 2017, Ingrid Leijten hosted an expert-seminar titled ‘Tailored Provisions, Social Rights Compliance?’ (‘Maatwerk als Mensenrecht?’).

This book presents the results of a research about the Islamic courts of Cianjur in West Java, and Bulukumba in South Sulawesi and the role they play in local divorce practices.

On Wednesday 13 December, Melanie Fink will defend her doctoral thesis ‘Frontex and Human Rights: Responsibility in “Multi-Actor Situations” under the ECHR and EU Public Liability Law’. The defence will take place at 10.00 hrs at the Academy Building of Leiden University, Rapenburg 73. The supervisors…

The map application includes information from old and new buildings archaeological projects. This makes it possible to investigate whether water facilities (wells, cisterns) and waste facilities (cesspits, sewers) were the privilege of Leiden’s wealthy elite in the late 16th and 17th centuries or whether…

An investigation by Dutch news site RTL Nieuws reveals that an error at the Regional Institute for Juvenile Outpatient Mental Healthcare (Jeugdriagg), has led to the files of children, many with serious psychological problems, being leaked.

The book 'The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child' is the result of the international academic conference – ’25 Years CRC’ – which was held in November 2014 in Leiden on the occasion of the 25th birthday of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The Sackler Distinguished Lecture Series on Human Rights was established at Leiden University through an endowment given by Dr. Raymond R. Sackler and his wife, Beverly, international philanthropists with a commitment to supporting scientific research. The lectures mark the annual celebration of International…