The Interdisciplinary research laboratory on the rights of the child (IRLRC) was created in 2007 at the University of Ottawa's Faculty of Law, Civil Law Section, to promote interdisciplinary research and training on issues relating to children's rights and well-being. Over the years, the IRLRC has developed an interdisciplinary course on children's rights at the graduate level and organized multiple conferences on different themes, among other activities.

In 2025, the IRLRC became a research network bringing together members from different disciplines at the University of Ottawa and other institutions. IRLRC brings together professors, master's and doctoral students, as well as community representatives interested in children's rights research to become members. Members' interests cover a wide range of topics relating to childhood and youth, in an approach respectful of children's rights. Members organize a biennial scientific event and publication.

A general framework for understanding the research done at the IRLRC is to recognize children’s unique personhood when considering their rights and emphasizing that children and study of child rights are influenced by the different systems in which they are nested including families, schools, neighbourhoods, legal and child welfare systems, and societies more generally. In order to encourage partnerships and joint projects as much as possible, the Laboratory’s Research program is organized under four complementary themes:

1) The Child and the Law

• Childhood, education rights and privacy.
• Childhood, vulnerability and marginalized groups.

2) The Child and the Family

• Filiation and identity.
• "Circulation" of the child.

3) The Child, the State and Society

• Protection and delinquency.
• Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

4) Reflections on Child-Centred Research Methodologies

• Participatory research with children.
• Human Rights/Child rights-based approaches.

Mona PARÉ | Full Professor & Director of the IRLRC
Faculty of Law | Civil Law Section | University of Ottawa
[email protected]

Clémence BENSA | Professor
Law Department | Université du Québec en Outaouais (UQO)
[email protected]

Nathalie MONDAIN | Associate Professor
School of Sociological and Anthropological Studies | Faculty of Social Sciences | University of Ottawa
[email protected]

Student Member Representative
Ana Karen ESPINOSA BECERRA | Ph.D. Candidate
School of Psychology | Faculty of Social Sciences | University of Ottawa
[email protected]