Book Review Children's Voices, Family Disputes and Child-Inclusive Mediation: The Right to be Heard
3rd July 2025
Image: Barbara Corbett Reviews Book Review - Children’s Voices, Family Disputes, and Child-Inclusive Mediation: The right to be heard by Anne Barlow and Jan Ewing
Advocate Corbett was asked to do a book review for Anne Barlow and Jan Ewing's book about a child's right to be heard.
Book Review - Children’s Voices, Family Disputes, and Child-Inclusive Mediation: The right to be heard, Anne Barlow and Jan Ewing
Extract from The British Journal of Social Work
This book was first published in 2024 by two leading academics who have experience working in the fields of mediation and dispute resolution within (and outside) the family justice system. The work is based on the results of a research project in respect of child-inclusive mediation (CIM).
The aim of the book is stated as being to explore ‘the law, theory and practice of family dispute resolution from a children’s rights perspective’. However, the book actually only deals with CIM, reporting on a small group of families (twelve parents and twenty children) who were involved in CIM. The idea is that CIM should be part of a child-centred approach in order to safeguard and promote the rights of children as enshrined in Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). This is a laudable aim, but this book shows that in itself CIM is not going to be a panacea in giving children the autonomy to influence what happens in their families post-separation that Article 12 dictates they should have. There is a four-stage test to ensure compliance with Article 12. Children need to have the space to express a view. Children must be given a voice by being facilitated to express their views. There must be an audience to listen to the child’s view and the child must have influence, in that their view must be acted upon, as appropriate.
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