This open access book critically explores what child protection policy and professional
practice would mean if practice was grounded in human rights standards. This book inspires a
new direction in child protection research - one that critically assesses child protection
policy and professional practice with regard to human rights in general and the rights of the
child in particular. Each chapter author seeks to approach the rights of the child from their
own academic field of interest and through a comparative lens making the research relevant
across nation-state practices.The book is split into five parts to focus on the most important
aspects of child protection. The first part explains the origins aim and scope of the book
the second part explores aspects of professionalism and organization through law and policy
and the third part discusses several key issues in child protection and professional practice
in depth. The fourth part discusses selected areas of importance to child protection practices
(low-impact in-house measures public care in residential care and foster care respectively)
and the fifth part provides an analytical summary of the book. Overall it contributes to the
present need for a more comprehensive academic debate regarding the rights of the child and
the supranational perspective this brings to child protection policy and practice across and
within nation-states.
