Ricerc@Sapienza

The outbreak of COVID-19 has produced serious consequences on children. The predominant analysis mainly refers to four different effects, as to say the increase in number of children in conditions of extreme poverty; criticalities in accessing education, depending on social and economic condition of the family, as a consequence of the closure of many schools and the conversion of teaching activities into e-learning; difficulties in guaranteeing an adequate protection of health, considering the overload of national health systems; the increased risk of violence for children, both in the domestic environment and in de jure or de facto detention situations. On a normative level, the pandemic response has been characterized by a plethora of legal acts which do not partially or fully consider the major interests of children. In order to better take into account children's rights and interests, the guiding light for the adoption of regulatory measures with an impact on minors is the principle of the best interests of the child. The research, analysing legal measures adopted during the health emergencies responses, will specifically deal with the impact of the mentioned principle in international, European and national laws as well as its procedural implementation. The main case study for the project will be the COVID-19 emergency response.