Els Dumortier

Els Dumortier is Professor of Children’s Rights and Youth Justice Law at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). She is a founding member of the interdisciplinary Child Citizen Lab, where scholars from different disciplines collaborate on research concerning children’s rights, citizenship, and participation.

Her research focuses on the implementation of children’s rights within youth justice systems and on the lived experiences of children and young people who are in conflict with the law or in need of care and protection. She is particularly interested in understanding how children’s rights are realised in practice and how young people experience legal and care interventions.

Currently, her work centres on three main research strands. First, she is developing innovative participatory methods to amplify the voices of children and young people growing up in youth care and of children experiencing bullying in primary schools. Second, she examines how children’s rights and procedural safeguards operate in practice, including during police interrogations, within youth detention, and in the context of electronic monitoring. Third, she examines trends towards “juvenilisation” in adult criminal justice.

Els is actively involved in several national and international research networks on children’s rights and youth justice, including the European Network on Child-Friendly Justice and the EU COST Action Justice to Youth Language Needs.

Research Line

Youth Justice Studies

Current Research Projects

Primary prejudice. Tackling identity-based bullying in pre-and primary school.

Parental abuse by adolescents, a multi-voice story. A qualitative study of experiences and approach of parental abuse in Belgium. 

JEZZ – Who am I? Empowering self-identity of youth in residential care through creative storytelling and collaborative action research

Courses (2025-2026)

Consitutioneel Strafrecht en criminologie

Jeugdrecht en jeugdcriminologie

Jeugdcriminologie