Elise Blondeel

Elise Blondeel is a PhD Researcher at the Institute for International Research on Criminal Policy (IRCP, Ghent University) at the Faculty of Law and Criminology since October 2018. She graduated as a Master of Science in Criminology (summa cum laude) in June 2018 as the second best of her class. In the third bachelor year, Elise did an internship in the Civil Section of the House of Justice in Ghent, dealing with complex family matters. Her ambitions and motivation were picked up by her promoter Prof. Wendy De Bondt and led to an appointment as student-researcher. During her masters, she continued to pursue her research interests in children’s rights and criminal law, which resulted in a Master’s dissertation that was rewarded a 17/20 mark and was selected as one of the best Master’s dissertations in Criminology. Her thesis was also nominated by the Department of Child Law of Leiden University and Defence for Children for the Jaap Doek Children’s rights Thesis Award 2018.

Her research is titled “Children’s rights in international parental abduction cases: In search of a solid legal and conceptual framework governing the interaction of  civil and criminal law procedures”. It is her ambition to contribute to a well-considered, well-founded policy which assigns clear responsibilities to the legislating authorities. These authorities do have the obligation to be vigilant towards the best interests of the child in legal protection.