This module is a resource for lecturers
Student assessment
This section provides a suggestions for post-class assignments for the purpose of assessing student understanding of the Module. Suggestions for pre-class or in-class assignments are provided in the Exercises section.
To assess students' understanding of the Module, the following post-class assignments are proposed:
Assignment 1 – International accountability and justice for children
Students are to refer to the most recent CRC Committee Concluding Observations for their country, or, a country for which they have knowledge of the legal system and public policy context. Students are to identify an issue that the CRC Committee has raised that relates to justice for children in the selected country. The task requires that students review the CRC Committee’s observations on that issue, as well as any mention made in the relevant States parties report, and subsequently draft an essay that critically assesses the extent to which children’s rights are upheld, and children receive child-sensitive justice response/s. Postgraduate students should be encouraged to frame their analysis in terms of the multi-disciplinary evidence base on child well-being.Lecturers should determine the word count for the essay, and other requirements, to suit the level/aims of the class.
Assignment 2 – Pathways to justice
The means by which victims, witnesses and alleged or convicted offenders seek justice vary across cultures, depending on a range of factors, including the nature and extent of the crime and/or human rights violation and, of course, the justice/redress mechanisms that are available. Students are encouraged to reflect on this variability, and write an essay that critically evaluates a justice mechanism that is relevant to their jurisdiction. This will require that students engage in considerable secondary research in order to supplement the foundational knowledge that have gained in this Module. Examples of justice mechanisms might include: state ordered commissions of inquiry; truth and reconciliation commissions; child death reviews; individual complaints to United Nations Treaty Monitoring Bodies; Individual applications to regional human rights courts (e.g. the European Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights); reports to national ombudspersons; etc.
In their essay, students should be encouraged to draw on academic and civil society literature, as necessary, in order to critically evaluate the extent to which the justice mechanism served the child victims/witnesses and alleged/convicted offenders involved. Lecturers should determine the word count for the essay, and other requirements, to suit the level/aims of the class.
Next: Additional teaching tools
Back to top