Law Library of Congress publishes research report on child-protection law and policy across sixteen countries
April 23, 2020
BY Kevin Zakreski
The U.S. Law Library of Congress has published a research report (PDF) on laws and policies protecting children from abuse and neglect. The report “briefly describes domestic U.S. federal law before turning to a comparative analysis of foreign law.”
This comparative analysis consists of chapters on 16 countries. Each chapter begins by describing the country’s legal framework for child protection. There is a particular emphasis on criminal statutes that are designed to protect children from abuse and neglect and on child-protection legislation similar in substance to British Columbia’s Child, Family and Community Service Act.
The chapters also describe government policies and programs for the protection of children in each of the surveyed countries. Finally, each chapter reviews the subject country’s practices on gathering data and publishing statistics on child abuse and neglect.
The report includes a comparative summary.
The countries surveyed in the report are:
- Argentina;
- Armenia;
- Australia;
- Brazil;
- Canada;
- China;
- Egypt;
- England;
- France;
- Germany;
- India;
- Israel;
- Japan;
- Kenya;
- Mexico; and
- Sweden.
