The Database of Advocates for Children at HLS was established by Child & Youth Advocates to foster a community of advocates for children and serve as a resource for individuals to connect on relevant issues. The database includes those who are considering a career involving children, youth, and adolescents, as well as those who have any related prior experience, and it is continuously updated as submissions are received.
We encourage you to include your name by completing the following survey: http://tinyurl.com/ChildAdvocatesSurvey. It should take less than 10 minutes to complete, and we welcome both current students and alumni for a robust database.
Database Information
The database introduces the interests and expertise of the advocates on issues relating to children, with the latter involving fields in which they gained knowledge through academic or professional work. The table below provides the relevant thematic categories that the advocates were able to choose from, along with respective examples of specific issues. The database also presents information about the experiences of the advocates before and during law school, their post-graduation plans, and tips and resources they want to share. A more thorough description can be found in the survey above.
| Thematic Focus | |
| Categories | Examples |
| Children’s rights | Convention on the Rights of the Child, child-specific legislation, and specific rights like the human right to nurturing parents |
| Family law and guardianship | Representation of minors, parental rights, views of the child/child participation, and different family structures (like international and domestic orphans/ unparented children, children with single or divorced parents, children of same-sex parents, and teen parents and pregnancy) |
| Child welfare | Violence against children (like neglect, abuse, domestic violence, and corporal punishment), institutionalization, foster care, adoption, family reunification, birth registration, and good parenting |
| Child health, nutrition, and survival and development | Early childhood development, neuroscience, WASH, disease and immunization, and medical legal partnership clinics (MLPC) |
| Children and reproductive rights | Abortion, contraception, assisted reproductive technologies, surrogacy, sex selection and stem cell research, sperm and egg freezing, and medical minor consent laws |
| Juvenile justice and children in contact with the law | Children in conflict with the law/child victims/child witnesses, juvenile frameworks, minimum age of criminal responsibility, child-sensitive procedures, diversion and alternative measures, and harsh sentencing and deprivation of liberty |
| Education law | Special education, school discipline, bullying, school-to-prison pipeline, and federal laws like Title IX or Title IV |
| Child poverty and inequality | Urban/rural planning and discrimination |
| Gender-specific issues regarding children | Female genital mutilation/cutting and gender-based violence |
| LGBTQ youth | |
| Children with disabilities | Access to benefits like social security insurance |
| Child trafficking, labor, and slavery | Commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC), domestic servitude, and use of children in crime |
| Child pornography and online protection | Social media, harmful influence, and enticement by online predators |
| Child marriage, sexual consent, and religion | |
| Children in armed conflict | Child soldiers, forced conscription, and vulnerability due to conflict situations |
| Children in migration, cross-border protection, and children of stateless groups or ethnic minorities | Immigration, refugee and asylum-seeking children, accompanied/unaccompanied children, undocument-ed children, and children in groups like the Roma |
| Children in emergency situations and climate change | Crises, natural disasters, conflicts, and litigation based on children’s rights |
| Children on the streets and external influence | Gangs, substance abuse, and homelessness |
| Adolescents and youth | Transition age youth, former foster youth, youth development, and emancipation |
* Advocates also had the choice of specifying any other field
How to Use the Database
The advocates in this database have indicated that they are happy to speak to others about their interests and expertise, and you can contact them through the e-mail address that is provided or by searching for them in the Harvard Directory (requires login). If you are looking for specific thematic issue categories, please use the search function (Ctrl + F on your keyboard). The advocates are listed in order of submission. You can see the complete database in the form of a spreadsheet here.