Dr. Sonja Grover publishes new book The Persecution of Children as a Crime Against Humanity: The Case for the Prosecution (Springer Publishers)

Dr. Sonja Grover, Professor in the Faculty of Education, released her latest book - the most recent addition to her work on children’s human rights in the context of international criminal law.

The book examines through various legal cases from international criminal courts/tribunals examples of the failure to charge persecution of children in connection with genocide, crimes against humanity and certain selected war crimes where the facts and the law would have supported the charge.

It introduces a new concept in international criminal law; namely the ‘age-based persecution of children’ as a crime against humanity and discusses the need for justice and accountability in regards to that distinct international crime.

The topic of the persecution of children as a crime against humanity has in recent months come to the fore in the Canadian public consciousness as likely having occurred in the Canadian context. This with the discovery of mass unmarked graves holding the remains of missing Indigenous children who did not survive attendance at Canada’s colonial residential ‘school’ system.