INTRODUCTION

This Handbook has provided insights into how children participate in national family law proceedings nowadays and how this relates to relevant developments regarding children's right to participate from the human rights and social science perspectives. Thus, it endeavours to contribute to the growing body of research and literature in the field of children's rights, particularly the child's right to be heard, through both legal and psychological lenses. Bringing together the findings of this Handbook in a concluding chapter has been quite a challenge, since it contains so much information on many relevant dimensions: human rights law, national family law in 17 jurisdictions, private international law and social science research. Collating the various chapters has, however, enabled us to identify several key issues and themes, which we combine with our more general reflections.

To start with a few obvious conclusions: a clear one, as pointed out by many, if not all, of the contributors to this Handbook, is that decisions in family law proceedings can have a substantial impact on children's present and future lives and, for that reason, opportunities for children to participate in these proceedings are essential. Hearing the child's views can significantly improve the quality of the decisions made, as well as assist with the child's adjustment to his/her post-separation living and contact arrangements. A trend is also evident in national jurisdictions, private international law and human rights to pay more attention, and attach greater weight, to child participation to ensure that children have a real say in matters that affect them. A third general conclusion is that the rights of children in this domain are often diffuse and the result of processes developed over time, which has led to fragmentation. Even though this Handbook demonstrates clear developments favouring child participation in family law proceedings, much work remains to be done. We therefore identify a roadmap for future work in this field.

HUMAN RIGHTS

Clearly, human rights have had a major impact on the law, with six international instruments containing participation rights for children: the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, the European Convention on Human Rights, the European Convention on the Exercise of Children's Rights (1996), the Council of Europe's Guidelines on Child-friendly Justice (2010) and the Guidelines on Children in Contact with the Justice System of the International Association of Youth and Family Judges and Magistrates.