Prof. Olga KHAZOVA – The Concept of the Best Interests of the Child and New Forms of Families

The main focus of the lecture will be the concept of the best interests of the child, stipulated in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. This concept is considered to be one of the most important and difficult to be applied in practice. In family-related situations, there are many factors that need to be taken into account when assessing what is in the best interests of a particular child. This task with regard to what is called ‘new forms of families’ or ‘alternative families’ is even much more difficult.

At the same time this is increasingly becoming an evolving issue in Europe. Apart from that, it is often linked to another complicated and challenging topic – the right of a child who was born as the result of assisted reproduction and/or was adopted to know his or her origin. Although the legal regulation of all these issues is different in different countries, and it is ‘still new territory’, we may find some guidance in case-law of some of the European countries and in the ECHR jurisprudence.