Tara Collins
I am a professor at the School of Child & Youth Care at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) where I also serve as program faculty with TMU’s graduate programs in Early Childhood Studies, Immigration & Settlement Studies, and Policy Studies PhD. I am also an honorary professor at the Children's Institute (external link) at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. I am the project director for the International & Canadian Child Rights Partnership (ICCRP), which is described further below.
I have a PhD from the University of London and my professional experience since 1996 includes universities in Canada, South Africa, Brazil, and Ireland; the Canadian federal government (Department of Foreign Affairs and Canadian International Development Agency as identified then, respectively); Parliament; and a national non-governmental organization. I have worked with young people in various ways in volunteer and professional capacities in community and recreational contexts since 1987.
In addition, I am a member of the Child Rights Academic Network (CRAN) (external link) ; Advisory Council of the Landon Pearson Resource Centre for the Study of Childhood and Children’s Rights (external link) at Carleton University. I also serve as an Editorial Board member for Canadian Journal for Children’s Rights (external link) , Relational Child and Youth Care Practice (external link) , and as of June 2026, the (excel file) International Journal of Children’s Rights (external link) .
Research Interests
- Children’s rights/human rights
- Child and youth participation
- Child protection
- Non-discrimination
- Monitoring and child rights impact assessments (CRIAs)
- Anti-violence violence in schools
- The right to play
- Business
- Decoloniality
- Youth-Led Participatory Action Research (YPAR)
International and Canadian Child Rights Partnership (ICCRP)
The International and Canadian Child Rights Partnership (ICCRP) was established as an outcome of an international conference held at TMU in October 2015 on the subject of children's participation and child protection.
With a Partnership Development Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC - Canada), we conducted research in Canada and internationally on the connections between children’s rights to participation and protection. To ensure the inclusion of children and youth as partners, an international Child and Youth Advisory Committee (CYAC) was established with engagement from Brazil, South Africa, China and Canada to guide the research process. This Committee met virtually regularly to discuss issues related to children’s rights and the research process and efforts. There are numerous outputs: papers, newsletters, videos, and posters.
Through our prior work, the ICCRP identified a critically overlooked element in realizing child rights: intergenerational relationships. With SSHRC - Canada support through a Partnership Grant, and Ontario Research Fund - Research Excellence funding, the expanded ICCRP is now examining how intergenerational relationships can transcend current barriers to implementing children's rights, through intergenerational partnerships, in research, policy, and practice. The ICCRP now includes young people with lived experience, 37 researchers, and 30 partner organizations from universities, NGOs, major human rights institutions, and governments in Canada and in multiple countries across the Americas, Africa, Europe, Asia, and Oceania.
Our main research question is: How can intergenerational relationships contribute to challenge, and transcend barriers to realizing child rights? Our research objectives are:
- Expand conceptual models for intergenerational partnerships;
- Investigate processes for fostering intergenerational partnerships to support child rights, including youth activism;
- Identify and develop relational practices (intergenerational, decolonial, cross-national, cross-cultural, ethical) that can reform and stimulate research, public policy, and practice to support child rights; and
- Explore and analyze child rights education environments and how they support or hinder understanding of child rights among children, as well as intergenerational partnerships.
There are various case studies involving different populations and geographies to answer our main research question. We also have five Working Groups (WG), which are key vehicles for synthesis of case-study data and incisive application of our theoretical approach of relational child rights. Our case studies and WGs include young people, experts and emerging researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and a diverse mix of co-applicants, collaborators, and partners, as well as geographies and generations. WGs guide case studies in relation to the following five themes: Ethics, Participatory Methodology, Conceptual Interconnections, Policy, and Data & Evaluation.
See our website at International and Canadian Child Rights Partnership. If you have any questions about this project, please contact Dr. Tara Collins at tara.collins@torontomu.ca
Books:
Collins, T.M. (2024). Children’s Rights in Professional Practices with Children And Youth (external link) . Elgar Studies in Human Rights series, Edward Elgar Publishing. Book launch: https://youtu.be/sTv3p35JndA?feature=shared
Collins, T., Grondin, R., Pinero, V., Pratte, M., & Roberge, M.-C. (Eds.), Droits de l'enfant: Actes de la Conférence internationale, Ottawa, 2007: Rights of the Child: Proceedings of the International Conference. Wilson & Lafleur, 2008.
Published in Spanish as: Collins, T., Grondin, R., Pinero, V., Pratte, M., & Roberge, M.C. (Eds.). Derechos del niño. Buenos Aires: Eudeba, 2010.
Selected chapters in books:
Ciotti, S., Zufelt, V., Collins, T.M., Gibson, S. (In press). Navigating Youth-Led Participatory Action Research: Reflections on Ethics, Processes, and Lessons Learned fromInternational Child and Youth Activism Projects, The Palgrave Handbook on Participatory Action Research with Children, Palgrave.
Jamieson, J., Rizzini, I., Collins, T.M. & Wright, L.H.V. (2025). International perspectives on the participation of children and young people in the Global South, In A. Twum-Danso Imoh, L. Rabello de Castro & O. Naftali (Eds.). Studies of Childhoods in the Global South: Towards an Epistemic Turn in Transnational Childhood Research. Routledge. *This is the chapter publication of Jamieson et al. (2023) peer-reviewed article identified below.
Collins, T., Tisdall, K., McMellon, C., Gibson, S. (2024). Child and Young People’s Participation in Impact Assessment (external link) . In T. Burdett & J. Sinclair (Eds.). Public Participation in Impact Assessment, Edward Elgar Research Handbooks of Impact Assessment Series. Edward Elgar Publishers.
Almeida, L., Collins, T., Heynes, D-J., Jamieson, L., Rizzini, I., Walsh, S. (2023). Affecting Change in Different Contexts: Children’s Participation in Social and Public Policy Dialogues in Brazil, Canada, and South Africa (external link) , In B. Percy-Smith, N.P. Thomas, C. O’Kane, & A. Twum-Danso Imoh (Eds.). A Handbook of Children and Young People’s Participation, 179-185, Routledge.
Collins, T.M. (2022). Child Rights and Human Tragedy, in J. Freeman (Ed.). Caring To Connect - Nurturing Hopeful, Healing Relationships with Young People, 22-27, CYC Press. https://www.press.cyc-net.org/samples/caringtoconnect.pdf
Collins, T.M. (2020). Chapter 12: A Testament of the Great Impact of the Hon. Landon Pearson. In V. Caputo (Ed.). The Children's Senator: Landon Pearson and a Lifetime of Advocacy. 151-160. McGill-Queen’s Press.
Collins, T.M. (2020). The general measures of implementation: opportunities for progress with children’s rights, In A. Gadda, J. Harris, E.K.M. Tisdall, E. Millership, & U. Kilkelly (Eds.) Human Rights Monitoring and Implementation: How To Make Rights ‘Real’ in Children’s Lives. 21-39, Routledge. ISBN: 978-0-367-52069-4. This is a publication of a peer reviewed journal article on the general measures of implementation identified below.
Collins, T.M. (2019). Children’s Rights in HRIA [Human Rights Impact Assessment]: Marginalised or mainstreamed? (external link) in N. Götzmann (ed.). Handbook on Human Rights Impact Assessment, 119-134, Edward Elgar Publishing.
Collins, T.M., & Wright, L. (2019). Advancing the Right To Play in International Development (external link) , in C. Fenton-Glynn (Ed.) Children's Rights & Sustainable Development, 306-336, Cambridge University Press.
Collins, T. M. & C. Gervais, (2016). “Children’s Rights: Their Role, Significance and Potential”, in Current Issues and Controversies in Human Rights, 168-197, Gordon DiGiacomo (ed.) Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Paré, M., T. Collins and M. Ranjbar, (2016). “Taking stock of bullying and cyberbullying research and introducing a child rights perspective”. T. Liefaard & J. Sloth-Nielsen (Eds.), The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child: Taking Stock after 25 Years and Looking Ahead, Leiden: Brill| Nijhoff, https://brill.com/view/title/31787
Collins, T. M. (2015). “Child Participation in Monitoring the Convention on the Rights of the Child”, International Perspectives and Empirical Findings on Child Participation: From Social Exclusion to Child-Inclusive Policies, 405-437, Tali Gal & Benedetta Faedi Duramy (eds.), New York: Oxford University Press. See further http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199366989.do
Papers in refereed journals:
Cuiuri, V. and Collins, T.M. (2025). Investigating the Invisible Hand of Colonialism: A critical children’s rights and decolonial literature review of children’s health and social policies. Canadian Journal of Children’s Rights/Revue Canadienne Des Droits Des Enfants, 12(1), 78–104. Retrieved from https://ojs.library.carleton.ca/index.php/cjcr/article/view/5327
Collins, T.M. (2025). Child and Youth Participation in Child Protection Provincial Harm Reduction Policy Efforts in the Canadian Province of New Brunswick, SI: Current issues in children's participation; Child Abuse & Neglect, 162(1), April, 107231, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2024.107231
Collins, T.M., Gibson, S. (2023). How Businesses Can Assess the Impacts of their Charitable Activities on the Rights of Children and Youth. Youth. 3(3), 913-934, https://www.mdpi.com/2410280
Jamieson, J., Rizzini, I., Collins, T.M. & Wright, L.H.V. (2022). International perspectives on the participation of children and young people in the Global South, Third World Thematics: A TWQ Journal, 7:1-3, 56-74, https://doi.org/10.1080/23802014.2022.2050940
Collins, T.M. Wright, L.H.V. (2022). The challenges for children’s rights in international child protection: Opportunities for transformation. World Development, 159, 106032, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2022.106032
Collins, T.M., Gharabaghi, K., Caruana, S., Cherry, S., & Marcano-Henry, R. (2021). From Procedural Child Rights Education to a Relational Child Rights-Based Practice Model, Scottish Journal of Residential Child Care, 20(1): 1-20, https://www.celcis.org/application/files/1716/2263/3270/2021_Vol_20_No_1_Collins_T_From_Procedural_Child_Rights_Education.pdf
Collins, T., Rizzini, I. & Mayhew, A. (2021). Fostering global dialogue: Conceptualisations of children's rights to participation and protection, Children & Society, 35(2): 295-310. https://doi.org/10.1111/chso.12437
Collins, T.M., Sinclair, L., Zufelt, V. (2021). Children’s Rights to Participation and Protection: Examining Child and Youth Care College Curricula in Ontario, Child & Youth Services, 42:3, 268-297, https://doi.org/10.1080/0145935X.2020.1790352
Collins, T.M. & Paré, M. (2020). Anti-Violence Efforts in Canadian Schools: A Critical Overview of Civil Society Responses to Bullying, Canadian Journal of Children’s Rights, 7(1): 128-163. https://ojs.library.carleton.ca/index.php/cjcr/article/view/2569
Collins, T.M., Jamieson, L., Wright, L.H.V., Rizzini, I., Mayhew, A., Narang, J., Tisdall, E.K.M., Ruiz-Casares, M. (2020). Involving child and youth advisors in academic research about child participation: The Child and Youth Advisory Committees of the International and Canadian Child Rights Partnership, Children and Youth Services Review, 109, Article 104569, 1-9, DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2019.104569
Collins, T.M. (2019). “The general measures of implementation: opportunities for progress with children’s rights”, International Journal of Human Rights, 23(3), 338-356, https://doi.org/10.1080/13642987.2018.1558976,
Collins, T.M. (2017). “A child’s right to participate: Implications for international child protection”, International Journal of Human Rights, 21(1), 14-46, DOI: 10.1080/13642987.2016.1248122.
Collins, T.M. and M. Paré, (2016). “A Child Rights-based Approach to Anti-Violence Efforts in Schools”, International Journal of Children’s Rights 24(4), 764-802, doi 10.1163/15718182-02404005.
Paré, M. and T. Collins, (2016). "Government efforts to address bullying in Canada: Any place for children’s rights?" Journal of Law and Social Policy, 25, 54-77, http://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/jlsp/vol25/iss1/3/.
Collins, T. M., (2014). "The Significance of Different Approaches to Monitoring: A Case Study of Child Rights", Special Virtual Issue, International Journal of Human Rights, to mark the launch of the Human Rights Researchers Network, and coincide with Human Rights Day, Dec. 10 (originally published in 2008, vol. 12, 159-187).
Collins, T. M. and L. Wolff, (2014). “Work in Progress: Twenty-five Years of the Convention on the Rights of the Child — The General Measures of Implementation Across the Globe”, Canadian Journal of Children’s Rights, 1(1), 85-121, https://journals.carleton.ca/cjcr/index.php/cjcr.
Collins, T. M., (2014). “The Relationship between Children’s Rights and Business”, International Journal of Human Rights, October, 18(6), 582-633, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13642987.2014.944805.
Collins, T. M. & Gabrielle Guevara, (2014). “Some Considerations for Child Rights Impact Assessments (CRIAs) of Business” Revue générale de droit, 44(1), 153-192, http://www.erudit.org/revue/rgd/2014/v44/n1/1026401ar.pdf.
Collins, T. M., (2013). “International Child Rights in National Constitutions: Good sense or nonsense for Ireland”, Irish Political Studies, 28(4), 591-619, http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07907184.2013.838951.
Collins, T. M., (2012). “Improving Research of Children Using a Rights-Based Approach: A Case Study of Some Psychological Research about Socioeconomic Status”, Frontiers in Psychology, 3, Article 293, 1-4, doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00293, https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00293/full.
Collins, T. M., (2010). “Respecting the principle of best interests of the child in Canadian monitoring”, International Journal of Canadian Studies, 42, 69-89.
Major invited contributions and/or technical reports:
Rizzini, I., Collins, T., Strickland, D., & Menezes Neumann, M. (2025). Introduction to Special Issue: Children’s Rights and Decolonial Perspectives: Challenging dominant modes of knowledge production. Canadian Journal of Children’s Rights /Revue Canadienne Des Droits Des Enfants, 12(1), i-vii. Retrieved from https://ojs.library.carleton.ca/index.php/cjcr/article/view/5659
Collins, T.M. (2025). We interview Tara Collins about her book, Children’s Rights in Professional Practices with Children And Youth. The Childhood, Law & Policy Network, Published 6 April, https://www.qmul.ac.uk/clpn/news-views/book-interviews/items/we-interview-tara-collins-about-her-book-childrens-rights-in-professional-practices-with-children-and-youth.html
Rizzini, I., Fletes, R., Collins, T. & Krishnamurthy, S., Menezes Neumann, M. (2023b). Perspectivas internacionais sobre decolonialidade e direitos da criança/ International perspectives on decolonization and children's rights: Foreword. O Social em Questão/Social Question Journal, OSQ PUC-Rio/DSS # 56 May to August, 1-24 (editorial review). https://www.maxwell.vrac.puc-rio.br/62275/62275.PDF
Collins, T.M. (2023). Interview with Dr. Robert Doya Nanima, University of Western Cape, and Expert on the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child: An African Perspective on Decolonization and Children’s Rights. O Social em Questão/Social Question Journal, Ano XXVI - no 56 - Mai a Ago, 25-52, (editorial review). https://www.maxwell.vrac.puc-rio.br/62296/62296.PDF
Collins, T., & Rizzini, I. (June, 2022). Podcast on fostering global dialogues around children's rights with Tara Collins and Irene Rizzini. Children & Society Podcasts. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/page/journal/10990860/homepage/podcasts.htm
Collins, T.M. (2021). "Book Review of Erdem Türkelli, Gamze, Children’s Rights and Business: Governing Obligations and Responsibility (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020) (external link) ", Business and Human Rights Journal (editorial review), 6 (2021). pp. 616-620, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/bhj.2021.20
Collins, T.M., Cuevas-Parra, P., McMellon, C., Shin, R. (H.J.), & Tisdall, E.K.M. (2021). Global Child Forum Corporate Guide: Children’s Participation: How to involve children in decision-making. Global Child Forum. Feb. 1, 1-32, https://www.globalchildforum.org/internal-report/childrens-participation-guide/
Rizzini, I., Tabak. J. & Collins, T. M. (eds.) (2020). (PDF file) (Des)Proteção Social e Violação de Direitos – English: Social Protection at Risk and Rights Violations. Editorial [in Portuguese]., external link (external link) O Social em Questão/Journal Social Question PUCRio Journal 46(1). 9-20.
Collins, T.M. & Tisdall, E.K.M. (2019). Briefing: Children’s Participation in Business: A Human Rights-Based Approach: Introducing principles, rights & opportunities. Report. Global Child Forum, Nov.
Costa, M., Judy, Lima, C., Shin, R., Collins, T. (2021). BLOG: International and Canadian Child Rights Partnership’s Child and Youth Advisory Committee (CYAC), Invited. Ethical Research Involving Children (ERIC), April 23. https://childethics.com/blog/iccrp/
Collins, T.M. various contributions for CYC-Online, e-journal of the International Child and Youth Care Network (CYC-Net), beginning November 2017, http://www.cyc-net.org/cyc-online
- Dean’s Scholarly, Research and Creative Activity Award (Tenured), Faculty of Community Services, Toronto Metropolitan University, 2025.
- Appointed Honorary Professor, Children’s Institute (external link) , Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, Univ. of Cape Town, South Africa, May 2024-April 2029 and May 2019-April 2024.
- Dean’s Teaching Award, Faculty of Community Services, Toronto Metropolitan University, 2017.
- Knowledge Mobilization and Engagement Award, Toronto Metropolitan University, 2015