Dame Carolyn Paula Hamilton DBE (born November 1951) is a

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

who specialises in children's rights. She is also director of Coram Children's Legal Centre, an independent national charity dedicated to the promotion and implementation of children's rights based at the University of Essex. Hamilton has the position of professor at Essex.

Early life and family

Carolyn Paula Hamilton was born in

Hendon Hendon is an urban area in the Borough of Barnet, North-West London northwest of Charing Cross. Hendon was an ancient manor and parish in the county of Middlesex and a former borough, the Municipal Borough of Hendon; it has been part of Great ...

, London, in November 1951 to David Hamilton (died 2007) and his wife Laura. She has a brother Alan S. Hamilton. Her father escaped

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

as a boy before the Second World War on the first ''

Kindertransport The ''Kindertransport'' (German for "children's transport") was an organised rescue effort of children (but not their parents) from Nazi-controlled territory that took place during the nine months prior to the outbreak of the Second World ...

'' ship to England"1938: The year of fate" by Hermann Simon in Beate Meyer, Hermann Simon, & Chana Schütz (Eds.)
Jews in Nazi Berlin: From Kristallnacht to Liberation
',

University of Chicago Press The University of Chicago Press is the largest and one of the oldest university presses in the United States. It is operated by the University of Chicago and publishes a wide variety of academic titles, including ''The Chicago Manual of Style'', ...

, Chicago, 2009. pp. 15-16. and subsequently made a fortune in real estate and fashion. In 2016, a dispute between Carolyn and her brother Alan over the division of their father's estate became the subject of a bitter court case.

Career

Hamilton is a barrister who specialises in children's rights. In 1995 she was appointed director of

Coram Children's Legal Centre Coram Children's Legal Centre (CCLC) is a UK charity founded in 1981 that works to promote children's rights both in the UK and abroad. The CCLC is funded by grants from central government, UNICEF, and charitable trusts, and donations. Coram Chil ...

, an independent national charity dedicated to the promotion and implementation of children's rights based at the

University of Essex The University of Essex is a public university, public research university in Essex, England. Established by royal charter in 1965, Essex is one of the original plate glass university, plate glass universities. Essex's shield consists of the an ...

where Hamilton is a member of the department of law. She was a Consultant on Juvenile Justice to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2001-2003. She was the Child and Family Commissioner for the

Legal Services Commission The Legal Services Commission (LSC) was an executive non-departmental public body of the Ministry of Justice which was responsible for the operational administration of legal aid in England and Wales between 2000 and 2013. Overview The LSC was re ...

until December 2010. She was appointed

Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(DBE) in the

2017 Birthday Honours The 2017 Queen's Birthday Honours are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded as pa ...

for services to children's rights.

Selected publications

*''Family, law and religion''.

Sweet & Maxwell Sweet & Maxwell is a British publisher specialising in legal publications. It joined the Associated Book Publishers in 1969; ABP was purchased by the International Thomson Organization in 1987, and is now part of Thomson Reuters. Its British ...

, London, 1995. *''Family law in Europe''. Butterworths, London, 1995. (Kate Standley & David Hodson) *"Armed conflict: The protection of children under international law", ''

International Journal of Children's Rights The ''International Journal of Children's Rights'' is an academic journal relating to children's rights Children's rights are a subset of human rights with particular attention to the rights of special protection and care afforded to minors. ...

'', Vol. 5 (1997). (With Tabatha Abu El-Haj) *''Bullying: A guide to the law: How to tackle bullying inside and outside school''. (With Lucy Hopegood and Helen Rimington) Children's Legal Centre, 2000. *"The employment of children", ''Child and Family Law Quarterly'', Vol. 16, No. 2, pp. 135–149, 2004. (With Bob Watt) *''International child abduction: Law and practice''.

Butterworths LexisNexis is a part of the RELX corporation that sells data analytics products and various databases that are accessed through online portals, including portals for computer-assisted legal research (CALR), newspaper search, and consumer inform ...

, London, 2001. (With Mark Everall, Nigel Lowe & Michael Nicholls)

References

External links

Carolyn Hamilton on the Third Protocol of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamilton, Carolyn 1951 births English barristers People from Hendon Children's rights in the United Kingdom Academics of the University of Essex Children's rights Living people Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire