Council of Europe

ELSA and the “ELSA for children” Legal Research project

ELSA: The European Law Students Association, with its 38,000 members, is the world's largest independent law students' association. ELSA provides opportunities for international exchange, diversified legal education and personal professional development for law students and young lawyers. Members are law students and recent graduates who have an academic focus and have demonstrated commitment to international issues. ELSA operates primarily through its Local Groups, which are located at nearly 300 law faculties in universities throughout 41 countries in Europe.

The Council of Europe is Human Rights partner of ELSA and has granted ELSA participatory status in the Conference of INGOs. Since 21 February 2013, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Mr Thorbjørn Jagland, is patron of ELSA.

In order to support the Council of Europe ONE in FIVE Campaign to stop sexual violence against children, to contribute to the protection of children’s rights in Europe and to increase the awareness of law students on the subject, ELSA created a network-wide Legal Research Group (LRG) called ‘ELSA for Children’. Throughout 2012, 250 students from 23 countries carried out research on the implementation of European and international instruments protecting children against violence and sexual abuse. The project resulted in a final report compiling national data on the different definitions and legal approaches.

Link to ‘ELSA for children’ paper (link to come)

Results of the ‘ELSA for children’ Legal Research project: the full report can be consulted here

Click here for a shorter compilation of extracts: A Study on national measures for combating child pornography – How countries implement international standards. (This downloadable version is in a preliminary form: a finalized version ready for publication will be available for download shortly.)