Introduction

Family law disputes, such as those concerning divorce, custody or parentage, have a great impact on all those involved as they touch upon our personal lives and affect the relationships we share with those closest to us. Many of these family law disputes concern and impact children. Not only does the existence of conflict affect children, but the disputed topic often concerns children’s lives. For example, when parents separate, there may be conflict over the custody of the child, their living situation or how much time the child will spend with each parent. Family law disputes, especially those concerning parental separation, are often submitted to courts. Children and their lives are at the centre of these disputes, but they are generally not party to the proceedings. In that sense, children are silent witnesses. However, the position of children in family law proceedings has in the past few decades been the subject of increased attention. Through international and European human rights instruments, the child’s right to participate in family law proceedings has evolved considerably. Most notably, children have been afforded the right to participate in these proceedings through Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 (UNCRC). Whereas historically children were seen as objects as illustrated by the 19th-century proverb that ‘children should be seen and not heard’, the children‘s rights movement in the 1970s and 1980s led to the recognition of children as rights-holders with ‘personhood, integrity and autonomy’. Since the entry into force of the UNCRC in 1990 and through its almost universal ratification, the child’s right to participate is a fundamental human right of the child.