Published on 06-06-2025, Last modified on 06-06-2025
Seminar Series ‘Building Capacities’: Rethinking courtroom design for and with asylum-seeking children and young people
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Rethinking courtroom design for and with asylum-seeking children and young people: challenges, opportunities and lessons learned from a co-creative approach
Sara Lembrechts is a PhD researcher in the Migration Law Research Group at Ghent University. Her research explores the experiences of children and young people in appellate asylum procedures from a multidisciplinary children’s rights perspective. Part of her PhD analyses how courtroom design can advance asylum-seeking children’s human rights and principles of child-friendly justice, without compromising the formal requirements of an asylum appeal procedure. Two key questions guide this analysis: (1) how can asylum courtrooms safeguard and respect the human rights of children and young people (substance), and (2) how can their human rights and best interests be prioritised in the design of child-friendly infrastructure (process)?
To answer these questions, Sara developed a co-creative methodology to actively involve refugee children, judges, and other stakeholders in designing an asylum courtroom for and with minors in appellate asylum procedures. This courtroom is currently being tested and evaluated in asylum appeals involving unaccompanied minors at the Belgian Council for Alien Law Litigation (RvV-CCE). More information can be found here: https://www.ugent.be/re/epir/en/researchgroups/public-law/research/migration-law/minors.
During this Building Capacities session, Sara will present some of the lessons learned, challenges and opportunities that arose throughout this co-creative journey. Prof. Elisabeth De Schauwer (UGent Department of Special Needs Educatino) will act as a discussant.
Programme:
12:00 – 12:15: Welcome with vegetarian sandwiches
12:15 – 12:45: Presentation by Sara Lembrechts
12:45 – 13:00: Response by Prof. Elisabeth De Schauwer
13:00 – 14:00: Discussion