Book Review: Human rights in child protection: Implications for professional practice and policy by A. Falch-Eriksen and E. Backe-Hansen

• Author: Florence Smith,Tom Ellis,David Denney
• Published date: 01 September 2022
• Date: 01 September 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/10575677211015729
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

Energy Conservation and Production Act (2000). Had the authors focused on these legal acts and

related case precedents, many of their concerns and allegations might have been assuaged.

Discussion of environmental justice in relation to energy development would be better served

within the context of its effects on all Americans, as its impacts and legal ramif‌ications extend

throughout rural, impoverished, and underrepresented communities regardless of race. Despite the

shortcomings of this book, it would be useful for scholars and students who seek to understand

the historical contexts of disenchantment some tribal members feel about energy development and

natural resource accessibility on Indian lands.

ORCID iD

Karen Clark https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3482-8346

Falch-Eriksen, A., & Backe-Hansen, E. (Eds.). (2018). Human rights in child protection: Implications for professional

practice and policy. Palgrave Macmillan. 258 pp. €29.12, ISBN: 9783319948003 (eBook).

Reviewed by: Florence Smith, University of Portsmouth, United Kingdom Tom Ellis ,University of Portsmouth,

United Kingdom David Denney, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, United Kingdom

DOI: 10.1177/10575677211015729

Human Rights in Child Protection: Implications for Professional Practice and Policy is an innova-

tive and original analysis of the ideal implementation of child protection (CP) policy and practice. It

is also well written and structured, facilitating a clear understanding of the aims and impact of the

Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 (CRC) on children. As the editors, Falch-Eriksen and

Backe-Hansen note (p. 10), despite the duty of social workers to uphold the rights of children,

there has been little critical analysis of CRC in policy and practice until now. The book comprehen-

sively explores CRC’s articles related to CP, from referral to out-of-home placement, in order to

realize its aims of developing “a widely shared human rights standard…which explicitly grant[s]

children the right to protection”(p. 3). This makes the book a vital foundation from which to

ref‌lect on, understand, and develop rights-based practice.

The book has three main sections. The f‌irst three chapters paint the legislative and practitioner

context, acknowledging CRC as the standard reference point in designing CP services. Chapter 2

explains the impact of the right to protection, and Chapter 3 applies theoretical and analytical per-

spectives to explain the meaning of children’s rights for professional practice.

Chapters 4–6 examine interconnected relationships between children’s rights and CP practice, that

is, the best interests of the child, prospective rights and liberty, and children’s participation. The book

draws on countries represented by the diverse group of authors (Norway, England, Denmark, and

Finland), who approach the CRC from their respective f‌ields (law, political science, psychology,

social work [SW], and sociology) to demonstrate their argument through a comparative lens.

Skivenes and Sørsdal’s Chapter 4 provides comparative learning through an excellent analysis of

14 “high-income”countries’(from Australia to United States) ability to operationalize legislation in

the best interests of the child. However, the theoretical approach would have been strengthened by

incorporating Lipsky’s (1980) street-level bureaucracy approach to explain the compromises forced

on frontline social workers’routine activities. Chapter 5 highlights challenges facing professionals

where organizational systems and structures are not CRC/child rights based. Tarja Pösö’s Chapter

6 notably utilizes excellent examples where the inclusion of lived experiences has positively inf‌lu-

enced Finnish CP policy and practice.

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