Professor Karin Arts

Profile

I see and study law as a major factor in processes of development and/or transition, either as an instrument of change or as a vehicle for guarding the status quo. Human rights, and more in particular child rights-based approaches to development, are central in my work. My specific current teaching and research mainly focus on measuring children's rights (through the KidsRights Index project), and children's rights and sustainable, inclusive development (including climate change and SDGs). I have professional experience in more than 20 countries. Since 2017 I am a Member (and since 2020 Vice-Chair) of the Supervisory Board of the Dutch National UNICEF Committee.

Research

Publications

• K. Arts, ‘Children’s Rights and Climate Change’, in C. Fenton-Glynn (ed.), Children’s Rights and Sustainable Development: Interpreting the UNCRC for Future Generations, Cambridge University Press, 2019, pp. 216-235.
• K. Arts, ‘Children’s Rights and the Sustainable Development Goals’, in U. Kilkelly and T. Liefaard (eds.), International Human Rights: International Children’s Rights Law, Springer, Singapore, 2019, pp. 537-561.
• B. Adefehinti and K. Arts, ‘Challenging the Odds of Vulnerability and Resilience in Lone Migration: Coping Strategies of Zimbabwean Unaccompanied Minors in South Africa’, 17 Children’s Geographies no. 4, 2019, pp. 427-441.
• K. Arts, ‘Inclusive Sustainable Development: A Human Rights Perspective’, 24 Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 2017, pp. 58-62.
• K. Arts and A. Tamo, ‘The Right to Development in International Law: New Momentum Thirty Years Down the Line?’, 63 Netherlands International Law Review no. 3, 2016, pp. 221-249.
• K. Arts, ‘Twenty-Five Years of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child: Achievements and Challenges’, LXI Netherlands International Law Review no. 3, 2014, pp. 267-303.
• K. Arts and V. Popovski (eds.), International Criminal Accountability and the Rights of Children, Hague Academic Press (distributed through Cambridge University Press), 2006.
• K. Arts, ‘The International Protection of Children’s Rights in Africa: the 1990 OAU Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child’, in: 5 African Journal of International and Comparative Law, No. 1, March 1993, pp. 139-162.

Expertise