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Ann Skelton

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Ann Skelton
Born (1961-07-13) 13 July 1961 (age 63)
CitizenshipSouth Africa
Occupation(s)Chairperson of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child
TitleProfessor
AwardsWorld's Children's Prize
Academic background
EducationUniversity of Natal (BA, LLB)
University of Pretoria (LLD)
ThesisThe influence of the theory and practice of restorative justice in South Africa with special reference to child justice (2005)
Academic work
DisciplinePrivate law
Human rights law
Sub-disciplineChild law
InstitutionsUniversity of Pretoria
Leiden University
Main interestsChildren's rights, juvenile criminal justice, privacy of children, restorative justice, education law

Ann Marie Skelton (born 13 July 1961) is a South African jurist and children's rights activist who has been chairperson of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) since May 2023. She is a professor of private law at the University of Pretoria, where she is UNESCO Chair in Education Law in Africa, and she also holds the Chair in Children's Rights in a Sustainable World at Leiden University.

An expert on child law, Skelton rose to prominence as a practicing human rights lawyer and advocate, first in non-profit organisations and then through the strategic litigation programme of the University of Pretoria's Centre for Child Law, which was formerly headed by Skelton. In addition, through the South African Law Reform Commission, she has played a significant role in post-apartheid child law reform in South Africa, including as chair of the committee that drafted the Child Justice Act of 2008.

Academic and professional background

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Skelton completed her BA and LLB at the University of Natal, graduating in 1981 and 1985 respectively.[1] She worked as a public prosecutor for three years, from 1986 to 1988, and then was a director at Lawyers for Human Rights from 1988 to 1999.[2] From 1999 to 2003, she was the national coordinator of the Child Justice Project, which was located under the South African government and funded by the United Nations (UN).[3]

Returning to academia, Skelton completed her LLD at the University of Pretoria in 2005, with a dissertation on restorative justice in application to children.[1] After that, she remained at the university, initially as coordinator for the Children's Litigation Project in the Centre for Child Law, a law clinic that conducts advocacy, research, and litigation related to child law. She was subsequently promoted to become overall director of the centre.[3]

While she was director of the centre, in 2013, Skelton was appointed to hold the UNESCO Chair in Education Law in Africa, hosted by the University of Pretoria.[4] She was appointed as a full professor in the university's Department of Private Law the following year.[2] Her term as director of the Centre for Child Law ended at the end of 2018, but she retained her law chair at the university. In addition, in 2020/2021, she was the inaugural holder of the Rotating Honorary Chair in Enforcement of Children's Rights at Leiden University in the Netherlands,[5] and the following year, on 1 October 2022, she took up the chair in Children's Rights in a Sustainable World, a permanent part-time position in Leiden's Department of Child Law.[6]

Scholarship and litigation

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Skelton is rated a B1 researcher by the National Research Foundation, connoting international recognition in her field.[7] She has published widely on restorative justice and on child law, particularly on children's rights, juvenile criminal justice, and education law.

Skelton is also an admitted advocate of the High Court of South Africa.[2] As a pioneer of the Centre for Child Law's strategic litigation programme, she was involved in landmark child law cases and has argued at least a dozen times in the Constitutional Court of South Africa.[2][8] Perhaps most prominently, Skelton, instructed by the Centre for Child Law, represented the Teddy Bear Clinic in Teddy Bear Clinic v Minister of Justice, which presented a successful challenge to statutory rape provisions of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act, 2007; the clinic argued, and the Constitutional Court agreed, that it was unconstitutional for the act to criminalise sex between two minors both under the age of consent.[9]

Under Skelton and in cooperation with the Legal Resources Centre, the Centre for Child Law took legal action against Department of Education regarding a series of crises in schools in the Eastern Cape. One case was settled out-of-court in 2012, when the department agreed to fill thousands of vacant teacher posts in the province,[10] and another was concluded in the centre's favour in 2013, when the Mthatha High Court ordered the department to provide furniture to schools in Libode.[11][12]

In 2015, Skelton represented the interests of a seven-year-old British boy in a highly publicised custody battle between his parents: the boy's mother had taken him to South Africa after authorities in the United Kingdom remanded him to foster care; and his father, supported by United Kingdom authorities, applied for his return.[13][14] The following year, Skelton was appointed to represent the interests of Zephany Nurse, a teenage girl who had been abducted from Groote Schuur Hospital in 1997 and raised by her kidnapper.[15] After the kidnapper was convicted in a criminal trial,[16] Nurse's case provided the basis for the Centre for Child Law's attempts to establish default legal protections shielding the identities of child victims, witnesses, and offenders,[17][18] though Nurse later applied to have the protection order lifted in her own case.[19]

Public service

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South Africa

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During the post-apartheid transition, Skelton was involved in drafting proposals to reform the juvenile criminal justice system in South Africa.[20] In 1996, she was appointed to lead the project committee of the South African Law Reform Commission that was tasked by Justice Minister Dullah Omar with drafting related legislation. The committee finalised the draft Child Justice Bill in August 2000; among other things, it included ambitious sentencing reforms for children under the age of 18.[21] It was signed into law by President Kgalema Motlanthe in May 2009, following a prolonged wrangle in Parliament and civil society.[20] In 2011, Skelton expressed misgivings about the implementation of the law.[22]

Also through the South African Law Reform Commission, Skelton was a member of the committee that drafted the Children's Act of 2005.[2] She was also a member of the ministerial advisory committee that reviewed the social welfare white paper[16] and is a member of the board of Section27, a social justice non-profit.[23]

In 2010, Skelton became involved in the dispute between the government of Gauteng and Paul Verryn, a bishop of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa, whose church in central Johannesburg had become shelter to a large number of Zimbabwean refugees. In December 2009, in a bid to defuse the dispute, Verryn and the Legal Resources Centre applied to have Skelton appointed as curator for the numerous unaccompanied minors living in the church.[24] The Johannesburg High Court granted the order and charged Skelton with making recommendations for the care of the minors; in the meantime, Verryn was suspended for having acted without the Methodist Church's authorisation in applying for Skelton's appointment.[25] In the report of her investigation, released in February 2010, Skelton praised Verryn for "providing shelter and assistance to a group of children to whom little or no assistance was, initially, being offered by the state", but concluded that his church was "an unsuitable place for children" and also that allegations of child sexual abuse in the church "were sufficiently alarming... to have required a more robust response".[26]

In May 2014, the Pretoria High Court appointed Skelton to make recommendations in a controversial baby-swopping case, involving a boy and girl who had been swopped as newborns at the Tambo Memorial Hospital in Boksburg in 2010. Skelton reported in November that it would not be in the children's best interests to return to their biological parents, and she recommended instead that their "psychological parents" should be named their adoptive parents.[27][28]

United Nations

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In June 2016, the South African Department of Justice and Constitutional Development and Department of International Relations and Cooperation nominated Skelton as a candidate for membership of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), which oversees the implementation of the international Convention on the Rights of the Child.[16] She was elected and took office in May 2017.[7] During her first term, she led the drafting of general comment 24, published in 2019, on children's rights in the child justice system.[29] In other wings of the UN, she chaired the advisory board of the UN Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty[30] and chaired the drafting committee for the Abidjan Principles on the Right to Education and the role of private actors in education provision.[31]

In November 2020, Skelton was elected to a second term as a member of the UNCRC, which will run until February 2025.[29] She chaired the UNCRC's working group on communications from 2021 to 2023.[32] She was the head of the UNCRC complaints procedure in October 2021, when the UNCRC made its historic response to a complaint from young climate activists including Greta Thunberg and Ayakha Melithafa; the committee held that states could be held responsible for the negative effects of their carbon emissions on the rights of children.[33]

At the 93rd session of the UNCRC in Geneva in May 2023, she was elected to succeed Mikiko Otani as chairperson of the committee.[32][34]

Honours

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In May 2012, Skelton was awarded the World's Children's Prize for the Rights of the Child for her "successful fight for the rights of children affected by the justice system".[35] In 2016, the International Juvenile Justice Observatory awarded her the Juvenile Justice without Borders International Award "for her extensive dedication to the defence of children's rights... and especially for her outstanding achievements in improving the juvenile justice system in South Africa".[36] She received the University of Pretoria's Exceptional Academic Achievers Award on two occasions, in 2018 and 2022,[37][38] and she received an honorary LLD from the University of Strathclyde in June 2023.[39] She is also a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa.[40]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Skelton, Anne Marie". African Scientists Directory. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Professor Ann Skelton". University of Pretoria. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  3. ^ a b "Dr Ann Skelton appointed as new Director of Centre for Child Law". University of Pretoria. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  4. ^ "New UNESCO Chair in Education Law in Africa". De Rebus. 1 June 2013. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  5. ^ "Ann Skelton first holder of Enforcement of Children's Rights rotating professorship". Leiden University. 22 September 2020. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  6. ^ "Professor Ann Skelton appointed as Children's Rights Chair at Leiden University". Leiden University. 13 September 2022. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  7. ^ a b "University of Pretoria's Professor Ann Skelton to lead UN committee on rights of the child". Pretoria News. 23 May 2023. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  8. ^ "Ann Skelton a champion for children's rights leads UN committee on rights of the child". Pretoria News. 25 May 2023. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  9. ^ "Anomalies in Sexual Offences Act challenged". The Mail & Guardian. 30 November 2010. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  10. ^ "Eastern Cape schools win deal to fill teacher posts". The Mail & Guardian. 27 July 2012. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  11. ^ "EC education department to apologise over school furniture". The Mail & Guardian. 26 September 2013. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  12. ^ "Education in crisis: Teaching floored by lack of chairs". The Mail & Guardian. 19 October 2012. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  13. ^ "UK order for boy denied". Sunday Times. 16 September 2014. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  14. ^ "Battle for the return of a child to the UK". Sunday Times. 25 August 2014. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  15. ^ "Officials fear for Zephany's wellbeing". Sunday Times. 2 March 2015. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  16. ^ a b c "Skelton gets UN nomination". Cape Times. 14 June 2016. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  17. ^ Bateman, Barry (22 April 2015). "Centre for Child Law welcomes Zephany Nurse ruling". EWN. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  18. ^ Brandt, Kevin (11 July 2017). "Centre for Child Law to appeal judgment in child identity case". EWN. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  19. ^ "Zephany Nurse ruling 'should not apply to other child victims'". Sunday Times. 13 August 2019. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  20. ^ a b Pinnock, Don (3 June 2009). "An Act of compassion". The Mail & Guardian. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  21. ^ "Bill to keep juvenile offenders out of jail". The Mail & Guardian. 11 August 2000. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  22. ^ "Child Justice Act undercut from within". The Mail & Guardian. 30 September 2011. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  23. ^ "Professor Ann Skelton". SECTION27. 10 November 2022. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  24. ^ "Verryn wants curator for children". The Mail & Guardian. 16 December 2009. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  25. ^ "Bishop Verryn to face disciplinary committee". The Mail & Guardian. 22 January 2010. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  26. ^ "Central Methodist Church 'unsuitable' for children". The Mail & Guardian. 9 February 2010. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  27. ^ "'Swapped babies must stay': Grounds to sue for two mothers". Sunday Times. 26 November 2014. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  28. ^ "Court to make final call in baby swap case". Sunday Times. 16 November 2015. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  29. ^ a b "Champion for children's rights Professor Ann Skelton re-elected to UN Human Rights Office". IOL. 27 November 2020. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  30. ^ "Strategic partners: United Nations Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty". OHCHR. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  31. ^ "New landmark Abidjan Principles on the right to education and private actors adopted by experts". Right to Education Initiative. 14 February 2019. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  32. ^ a b "Ann Marie Skelton elected Chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child". End Violence Against Children. 12 May 2023. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  33. ^ "Countries bear cross-border responsibility for harmful effects of climate change, rules UN child rights committee". The Mail & Guardian. 19 October 2021. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  34. ^ "Ann Skelton ready to lead UN Committee on the Rights of the Child". Cape Times. 23 May 2023. Retrieved 28 May 2023 – via PressReader.
  35. ^ "South African child law expert receives global award". De Rebus. 1 July 2012. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  36. ^ "'Juvenile Justice Without Borders' International Award Fourth Edition". International Juvenile Justice Observatory. 2016. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  37. ^ "UP Law Shines at Academic Achievers' Awards". University of Pretoria. 21 November 2022. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  38. ^ "Two UP Law Professors are again Exceptional Academic Achievers". University of Pretoria. 26 March 2018. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  39. ^ "Eight leading figures to receive honorary degrees from Strathclyde". University of Strathclyde. 12 June 2023. Retrieved 3 July 2023.
  40. ^ "Members". ASSAf. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
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