On 18 June 2019, Peter Kempees defended his thesis 'Hard power and the European Convention on Human Rights'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. R.A. Lawson and Prof. H. Duffy.

This project investigates ancient water management of streams, springs and runoffs on the archaeological site of Monte Albán, Mexico, as a means to contribute with different stakeholders in the development of sustainable solutions to water problems today such as floods and scarcity.

The Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences brings together high-quality research and outstanding mono- and multidisciplinary teaching.

The Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences brings together high-quality research and outstanding teaching.

This research project from Leiden University looks at the opportunities and threats that flow from the existence of institutional and normative diversity in the area of fundamental rights for the effective protection of those rights in a pluralist world.

Are you thinking about studying European and International Human Rights Law? Learn more and watch the videos.

Some examples of AI-research done at Leiden.

On 13 December Marit Buddenbaum won the Jaap Doek Children’s Rights Thesis Prize for her thesis on the right of the child to contact with brothers and sisters. The prize for the best master’s thesis in the field of children’s rights is awarded each year by Defence for Children together with the Department…

Research on 45 years of legal and economic data for 132 countries by international team shows the addition of one right for LGB people is associated with over $2000 in GDP per capita

How has interreligious encounter in Ogbómòsó created multiple religious belongings and identities among individuals and groups?

This project studies travel writing about the Dutch East Indies written between 1800 and the end of the Second World War. By analyzing both Dutch travel texts and Indigenous travel texts in Javanese and Malay, it presents a new, double-voiced perspective on (the historiography of) the Dutch colonial…

From the rights of refugee children to the right to a sustainable Earth. The online platform Leiden Children's Rights Observatory makes information on children’s rights accessible and raises the social and scientific debate on this subject worldwide. Ton Liefaard, Professor of Children's Rights and…

LeidenGlobal Annual event

A new website has been designed to make the Leiden Children’s Rights Observatory, which started in 2018, more accessible.

LIAS is comprised of three research schools with expertise in different areas:

The language learning resource centre unites all language teaching professionals working at Leiden University: teachers and researchers at the LUCL, ATC, LUCAS, LIAS, and ICLON. You can find a list of them, ordered by language and/or role, in the menu on the left.

The third edition of the bi-annual Children's Rights Moot Court has come to a spectacular end in the first week of April.

Time, Religion and Sacred Discourses of the Ayuuk People

When discussing enslavement, attention often focuses on Africans forcibly shipped to South America. Researcher Timo McGregor's new Veni research sheds light on a lesser-known method, whereby indigenous populations were enslaved through the households of colonisers.

This unique collection applies globalization concepts to the discipline of archaeology, using a wide range of global case studies from a group of international specialists.

A cultural sequence of western coastal French Guiana from 5000 BP to present

On 26 June 2018 Claire Achmad will defend her PhD thesis Children’s Rights in International Commercial Surrogacy.

Mexico, between 500 B.C. and A.D. 900

On Friday 8 February 2019, we were honored by a visit of Ms. Anna Batalla, Human Rights Officer at the Petitions and Inquiries Section of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights - United Nations, who gave a lecture on bringing a case to the Committee on the Rights of the Child and on the…

On Tuesday 23 May 2017, Jasmina Mackic defended her doctoral thesis ‘Proving discriminatory violence at the European Court of Human Rights’. The supervisor of the research is Vice Dean and Professor of Public International Law Larissa van den Herik. A brief summary of her thesis is provided below.

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…

From 23 to 27 January 2017, the Child Law Department and the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies of Leiden Law School organized the first regional edition of the Leiden University Frontiers of Children’s Rights Summer School. The Frontiers of Children’s Rights in the ASEAN Region was set…

Kim Stroet is examining how the interaction between teachers and pupils influences pupils’ motivation. ‘Children need to have the feeling that they are in control of their own learning process.’

On the 15th of June, 2017, Professor Ton Liefaard gave a key note address at the occasion of the conference International Conference for Children's Rights. A Rights-based Approach to Child Welfare in Taipei, Taiwan.

The research project addresses the question how complaints in the voluntary youth care system are dealt with on the municipal level and what role (municipal) Children’s Ombudspersons play in this context, through qualitative research methods.

The department of Child Law of Leiden University and Defence for Children invite you to the eighth Jaap Doek Children’s Rights Thesis Award ceremony. The ceremony will take place online, on Thursday 10 December from 15.30 until 17.00h.

Master of Laws: Advanced Studies in International Children’s Rights Outstanding Student Research Theses

LUMC researchers are looking for factors that point to illness at an early stage.

LUMC researchers are looking for factors that point to illness at an early stage.

Stichting Migratierecht Nederland and the Europa Institute of Leiden University are jointly organising the conference ‘Children’s Rights and Migration’ that will take place in Leiden on 26 January 2023. Researchers, lawyers, judges, policy makers and other professionals from migration legal practice…

On 30 May, Gert Jan Boeve defended the thesis 'The general right of suspension'. The doctoral research was supervised by Bart Krans and Alex Geert Castermans.

To what extent are the rights of children in the Netherlands guaranteed? On 8 December 2015 the Dutch Children’s Ombudsman has published the Children’s Rights Monitor 2015.

In this paper, Sibgatullina and Abbas aim to illuminate the complex connections between the European right-wing movements and Islam and discusses how the adoption of Muslim identity may function as a politically strategic opportunity for European conservative forces.

In Women and Property Rights in Indonesian Islamic Contexts, eight scholars of Indonesian Islam examine women’s access to property in law courts and in village settings.

The rights of children born through international commercial surrogacy are at risk of being overlooked or even violated. Lawmakers, judges and commissioning parents should be more aware of this and take protective action throughout the surrogacy procedure. This is the conclusion reached by lawyer and…

ACPA alumna Dr. Itandehui Jansen is currently working on a new experimental film. The project researches sustainable filmmaking approaches, while exploring Indigenous Futurisms through film practice. The project is a continuation of Jansen’s research for the AHRC scoping project Sustainable Materials…

On 10 December Walter Burkard won the Jaap Doek Children’s Rights Thesis Award 2020 for his thesis on climate change and children’s rights.

‘Children’s rights are somewhat of a poor relation’, says Professor of Law and Health Mirjam Sombroek-van Doorm. In her inaugural lecture, she will emphasise how more attention needs to be paid to children’s rights in current thinking on law and health.

The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) has accused Finland of violating the rights of Finnish children by leaving them in life-threatening conditions in Syrian camps. Ann Skelton, member of the committee, calls the situation 'inhuman'.

Investigating the contribution of interpreters, informants, hunters and guides in the making of colonial scientific knowledge.

How did colonial law work to turn people into property? This project argues that colonial ideas about households and domestic authority were critical to legal processes of enslavement in the early modern Dutch empire. Using colonial court records from Dutch Brazil, Suriname, and the Moluccas, the project…

All children have rights, and so foster children also have rights. But when these rights are not observed, there are not many options available to foster children to assert their rights. PhD defence on 8 October 2020.