Child rights jurisprudence without borders : developments in extraterritorial jurisdiction

Abstract

This article elaborates on the development of a global child rights jurisprudence emerging from the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (the CRC Committee), drawing from other treaty bodies and supranational bodies. It also considers whether the CRC Committee is ‘pushing the boundaries’ of international law on extraterritorial jurisdiction in its recent decisions, one of which concerns the repatriation of the children of foreign fighters in the camps in North East Syria, and the other relates to transboundary harms caused by climate change. The article concludes that these two decisions show evidence of a jurisprudence that crosses the boundaries of different bodies and courts, and which has extended the concept of extraterritorial jurisdiction.