Dr Jeannette Rodgers was awarded her doctorate in International Development, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council through the Midlands4Cities DTP, at the University of Birmingham. Her thesis makes the case for why, and how, the participation of children under the age of eighteen should be facilitated in processes of transitional justice and argues for a framework grounded in what is understood as the ‘right to be heard’ for children, as outlined in article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. With a focus on Rwanda and fieldwork undertaken with children between the ages of 13-18 in the country, the thesis provides practical recommendations and a fresh impetus toward a focus on the practices of giving children’s views serious consideration and constitutes a crucial original contribution to scholarship on transitional justice from the perspective of children’s rights and of development studies.
Jeannette will be using the ESRC LISS-DTP Fellowship to build upon and expand her research in this area. She will be writing a monograph, publishing her thesis as part of the Springer Series in Transitional Justice. As part of this process, Jeannette will also travel to Rwanda to work alongside her local partners at the ENHA-Girubuntu Initiative to hold interviews with national and local leadership. She will then hold hybrid workshops for policymakers, practitioners and academics specialising in child participation in transitional justice, hosted by the Department of War Studies. The ESRC LISS-DTP will therefore establish Jeannette’s publication record and allow her to engage with (and bring together) a range of different audiences to build networks and develop future impact opportunities.